No need for Watching
by Pudduh
Summary: A whole new visitor (Self Insert FREE!)
1. Pt.1

***This Fanfic is written without the permission of both Pioneer and   
AIC but I'm not selling it so please do not sue me. Actually what you can   
do Pioneer and AIC is reopen sales of Tenchi in the UK (you know how   
much it costs to get the stuff from America!!!!!!!) PLEASE!!!! Anyway   
this fanfic was thought up and written in a day after seeing all of the   
Fics which Ryoko wins the heart of Tenchi which I can understand. Anyway   
feeling a little sorry for Aieka I decided to add something into her   
life, hence this came out of my head to give Aieka some happiness for   
once. What really did it for me was the short fan fic which Aieka   
reflected on what happened and what might've been and in the end she runs away   
to find herself...so sad :( So I wrote this. Any pats on the back,   
flames, or helpful suggestions or basically just to tell me that you saw it   
please send ya e-mails to Puddah@ntlworld.com. Thanks and above all   
ENJOY!***  
  
No Need for Watching! Part 1.....  
  
  
"Forign Exchange!" Ryoko asked "isn't that an exchange of slaves or   
something?"  
"No no" laughed Tenchi as he read the phamphlet from his school (or   
disaster area, still recovering from Ryoko and Tenchi's big night out).  
"Then what is it Tenchi?" Sassami asked.  
"People my age from other countries come to stay for the summer, help   
out and learn about our culture, big jump from a couple of hundred years   
ago eh?" Tenchi Explained.  
"So who exactly will we be entertaining for the Summer?" Aieka asked.  
Tenchi paused for a second and looked at the sheet that came with it   
"Gary Thatchell from Great Britain"  
  
Tenchi took the time to look around the room to see where everyone was   
seeing he had his face buried in the leaflet since he had got in. Ryoko   
was looking down from the ceiling, Sassami was looking over from the   
table with Ryo-ohki and Aieka was standing by her sister. Washu was   
working on something, father was away in Tokyo working and Grandad...well he   
didn't know what Grandad was doing. Tenchi turned to exit. Mihoshi was   
somewhere else in the solar system, reading love comics or something.  
  
"He'll be comming in two days time, I've gotta do some chores, seeya   
later" said Tenchi as he walked out.  
  
A bit of scilence for a second.  
  
"Wow" Sassami said "A new person from the other side of the Planet   
staying".  
"Question is how will he react to us?" mused Ryoko, tail poking through   
the ceiling every once in a while.  
"You'd probably scare him away, either that or insult him with your   
manners (or lack of them)" laughed Aieka.  
"Oh yeah you'd bore stiff with your attitude!" glared down Royoko.  
"Oh yeah" glared back Aieka.  
"Yeah little girl!" bit Ryoko.  
"Why you" shouted Aieka and not for the first time a test of stregnth   
ensued, this time, Aieka pushing up and Ryoko pushing down. Sassami just   
sat as usual reading and stroking Ryo-ohki.  
  
"Well I'll give him a nice welcome" she thought.  
  
************  
  
"Foreign Exchange!" exclaimed Washu in her lab "Never had one of those   
in ages".  
"Yeah well, hes comming tommorow" Tenchi said "Brekfast is ready   
y'know".  
"Tommorow!!" shriked Washu jumping up into the air "sorry Tenchi but   
I've got a alot of work to finnish before tommorow so leave me in peace   
please, just leave the information sheet on the desk"  
Tenchi shrugged "Sure thing little Washu" and walked back through the   
door.  
When Tenchi left, Washu clicked her fingers and a small robot holding   
the sheet appeared next to her holding the sheet up so she could read   
it.   
  
She raised an eyebrow "Strange" she thought "his face, so famililar".   
She looked up and said "Computer"  
  
"Yes Washu" a chimed response came.  
"Little Washu goddamit!" she shouted.  
The computer stopped and computed for a while then said "Yes little   
Washu"  
"Check all records both using both Earth and Galactic records for the   
name Gary Thatchell"  
"Computing Wa-" cut off.  
"ah ah" smiled Washu.  
"Little Washu" grumbled the computer.  
There was a wait for a few seconds then a panel appeared in front of   
her showing the results.  
"No know galactic records of said subject, according to Earth records   
he is 18, lives in Hammersmith London, Great Britain, has a high level   
of Secondary and pre university education, currently taking a year out   
before University to see his planet. Unemployed, White, Anglo Saxon,   
Brown hair, brown eyes, average weight and build and no known long term   
medical problems."  
Washu blinked "What? there must be more"  
"Negative Little Washu" chimed the computer.  
"Check every record in the universe for said subject"  
Again the there was a pause.  
"Search complete Little Washu"  
"Any results?" Washu asked.  
"Negative little Washu"  
Washu thought for a second "Hmm, I'll have to find out about him the   
hard way.".  
  
***********  
  
Yosho was in the courtyard of the shrine, looking out at the   
countryside as the sun set. "He comes tommorow" he said calmly.  
  
"Yes but how will he take Ryoko and Aieka's antics?" Asked Tenchi.  
  
"Watch and learn Grandson" Smiled Yosho "watch and learn"  
  
The next day was bright and full of excitement, everyone was by the   
gates waiting for the new arrival. Sadly though the day turned to night.  
  
"Should'nt he be here by now?" asked Ryoko agitated.  
"He should be, I got a call from him in the taxi via his Mobile phone   
said he'd be here in 20 minutes" Tenchi said.  
"Maybe we shou.." started Sassami before pointing to a lone figure   
walking up the road "thats him!".  
  
Everyone stared down the road as Gary walked up, carrying only a   
rucksack. Finnaly he got to the gates, wiped the sweat away from his forehead   
and said "I apologise for my late arrival, the taxi driver dropped me   
off a mile or so down the road, claiming some deamon or something lives   
up here"  
  
Gary was dressed in Western clothes, nice pair of jeans, baggy shirt   
and white trainers, he had short hair, brown of course, untidy but that   
seems to be the fashion in Europe at the moment. He was quite slim and   
was slightly taller than Tenchi.  
  
Everyone glared at Ryoko "what?" she asked.  
  
"Anyway, I'm Gary Thatchell and I'll be you exchange student for the   
summer" he smiled.  
"Great glad you got here in one peice" Tenchi said as he lead Gary   
round "I'm Tenchi, next to me is Yosho, my Grandfather"  
Gary shook his hand "You're the master of the family shrine?" he asked.  
"indeed I am" replied Yosho.  
"This is Sassami with Ryo-ohki"  
"Oh my god!" grinned Gary "You're both so cute!" he said as he ruffled   
ryo-ohki and Sassami's hair playfully.  
"ha ha thank you sir" blushed Sassami.  
"This is Ryoko"  
"Nice to meet you" he put a hand out to shake.  
"same here" smiled Ryoko as she shaked.   
Gary cringed in pain for a second then rubbed his had when they   
finnished shaking "Strong grip" he laughed nervously.   
"This is Aieka"  
"Pleasure to meet you" said Gary  
"We are very pleased to have you here Mr. Thatchell" Aieka bowed   
slightly, getting a glare from Ryoko.  
"And finnally this is Washu"  
"nice to meet you" smiled Gary as he looked down then he blinked and   
looked again.  
"You can call me Little Washu" smiled Washu happily.  
"Erm quite" replied Gary.  
"Well now you've seen everyone, lets get you inside and get you sorted   
out. Follow me" said Tenchi as he walked through the gate.  
  
As Gary walked through the gate though, what he thought were two   
harmless wooded pillars suddenly said hello to him. Thinking for a second   
then rubbing his head as he walked on, he hoped that was the jet-lag   
talking to him.  
  
When Tenchi took Gary away to explain what they'll be doing in the   
months to come, Ryoko and Aieka talked privatly for a second.  
  
"What were you doing crushing his hand like that" fumed Aieka.  
"What do you mean?" said Ryoko.  
"I mean he wants to hold on to his right hand without you crushing it   
like paper thank you very much" said Aieka, arms folded and eyes closed.  
"Yeah like you did any better" said Ryoko "'we are very pleased to have   
you here Mr. Thatchell' give me a break".  
"Well..well I did much better than you!" said Aieka.  
The pair stared off each other.  
"Ladies?" said Gary.  
The pair jumped not really expecting Gary. Then they turned round and   
smiled sheepishly at Gary.  
"If you could point me to your toilet" smiled Gary.  
"Ah yes Mr. Thatchell.."  
"Please, its Gary"  
Ryoko pushed Aieka aside "What my friend here was trying to say was   
that the toilet is down the corridor"  
Gary raised his eyebrows "Right, thanks then"  
As Gary turned away, the two got back to their staring match.  
  
As it was getting late, Gary went to bed right after dinner due to Jet   
lag of a very very long flight.  
  
The next day however, promised physical and spiritral fulfilment by   
working hard harvesting carrots and doing the various chores.  
  
The door opened to Gary's room and a tired Gary stepped out and headed   
to the bathroom, Ryoko raced past.  
  
"Race ya to the bathroom!" she shouted as she ran. Getting to the   
Bathroom she opened the door to find Gary brushing his teeth.  
  
"wha-what!" said a suprised Ryoko "but you were back there"  
"I was?" mumbled Gary as his mouth was full of toothpaste.  
Ryoko looked at Gary, then behind, then at Gary again "Yeah you were   
back there!"  
Gary shrugged and got back to brushing his teeth.  
  
"Brekfast is ready!" shouted up Sassami  
  
Everyone milled in and sat down. Everyone except Washu.  
  
"Wow!" said Gary as he finnished his bowl "how do you make it so good   
Sassami?"  
"Well its all down to practice, if you can be bothered to learn then   
you can cook as well as you want to be" beamed Sassami.  
"Unlike her sister" grumbled Ryoko.  
"Don't start you insolent little..." Seethed Aieka.  
"Looking forward to see the shrine?" smiled Tenchi trying to take   
Gary's attention away from the feuding women.  
"Yeah its a good way to learn about your culture, by the way how many   
carrots do we have to get again?"  
"Oh about 700 or so" casually remarked.  
"700! all for that little thing down there" Gary said as he raised an   
eyebrow.  
A burp was heard below the table that told that Ryo-ohki was here.  
Everyone nodded and smiled  
"How does he stay in shape" Gary Said.  
  
Meanwhile Washu was watching Gary from a remote camera. "who are you"   
she said to herself as she looked at the virtual screen "I must find   
out".  
  
**********  
  
Later in the day, while Gary and Tenchi were out Carrot picking, Washu   
went to see Ryoko.  
  
"Oh Daughter, oh little daughter of mine!" chimed Washu as she looked   
around the sitting room.  
  
"What What!" said Ryoko, lying down in mid air.  
"Now thats no way to talk to your dear little mother" smiled Washu "I   
need you to do me a favour." She threw up a special syringe.  
"Whats this for?" asked Ryoko.  
"Its for our visitor, tonight, when hes alseep, sneak into his room and   
take a blood sample of him and give it to me asap right?"  
"Wrong! No way am I doing that, what if he wakes up and sees me?"  
"He won't now do what I say or you won't get any help from me on   
anything!"  
"Oh all right, all right I'll do it now leave me alone dammit" said   
Ryoko, desperate to be alone for a awhile.  
  
"This place is big, how many people come here every year" Said Gary as   
he swept the square outside the Shrine.  
"Very few, its untouched, its not even on any of the maps" said Tenchi   
"What do you think of the girls".  
"You're lucky! locked away in the middle of nowhere with all those   
girls" laughed Gary.  
"They act so strangly though, once I got a note from Aieka telling me   
to meet me after school yet I don't go to school nowadays!"  
"Nor does she?" said Gary.  
"Then Ryoko keeps trying it on with me but shes just annoying, shes   
cute though"  
The pair laugh.  
"Which one do you like most out of the pair?" asked Gary.  
"huh?"   
"As in if they both fell at your feet begging you to marry one of them,   
who would you choose"  
"To be honest I haven't a clue" grinned Tenchi "Which one do you like?"  
"Aieka, its nice to have some politness going into my ears for once,   
you can't belive how rude some people in London are."  
"I could understand that" nodded Tenchi.  
  
*********  
  
The night was still, suprisingly cool considering it was early July.   
Ryoko's head (or half of it) appeared through the floorboards of Gary's   
room.  
"Right" she thought to herself "lets get-" she stopped and looked at   
the empty bed "huh? where is he?" out of the window small blue flashes   
bathed the room. She peered out through the wall and saw that Gary was   
somehow teleporting towards the house, bit by bit. Seeing that he was   
comming closer she decided to make herself scarce. In a silent flash he   
appeared, covered in black. he stripped off, taking care of a thin,   
chain-mail like glove and putting in down in his rucksack.   
  
"There, at least I know its working" he said to himself as he got into   
bed "try out the other functions later".  
  
Ryoko waited till he dozed off and quickly took a sample from his toe.   
She then dived down to Washu's door and rushed in.  
"I got it! And he was doing some strange things too" said Ryoko.  
"What things?" said Washu.  
"Teleportation"  
"huh? quickly give me the sample, I need to match the DNA from it!"  
  
Washu grabbed the syringe and a special machine appeared, she dumped   
the blood inside and turned it on.  
"Computer give me results ASAP"  
"Yes little Washu" chimed the computer. Ryoko just watched.  
"Results ready"  
A screen appeared.  
"Gary Thatchell is really Gary Thatch!" said Washu.  
"who is?" Ryoko asked.  
"a Watcher" she said grinning like a Cheshire cat "a dimensional   
watcher!"  
"Oh my god! A watcher?"   
Washu nodded.  
"really a watcher?"  
Washu nodded.  
"wow a watcher!"  
Washu smiled.  
"WHATS A WATCHER!!!" shouted Ryoko blowing Washu over.  
"Watchers are people from a different diamension, they watch us and   
record events for themselves, they very rarely get involved in affairs   
fearing that they could accidently change events. They are very highly   
trained and they are all young, never above the age of 25." Washu smiled.  
"Why are you so happy then?" Ryoko asked.  
"I met one about 1000 years ago even though they are really quite   
recent. Though we didn't fall in love (I was still rebuilding after what   
happened 20,000) we were very good freinds, I only got his first name."  
"Which was Gary"   
"Well yeah his cover name Gazan, but he was nice enough then anyway.   
But..wait.." She looked down his file "This record ends about a year ago   
it says nothing else or where hes been or anything, something must've   
gone wrong" She turned back to Ryoko "you can do what you want, confront   
him if you want, but don't kill or seriously hurt him, he's vital to   
something very important. And don't let on that you were there earlier   
tonight!"  
"Don't you worry, all I'm interested is sleep and nothing else.   
Goodnight" She smiled as she went back through the portal to the house.  
  
When she got back she heard faint laughter, Sassami's Laughter. She   
shrugged and dumped herself on the Coutch that was her bed once more.   
Aieka however also heard the laughter, turning to see Sassami not in her   
bed she got up, dumped a robe on and wandered to see what the laughter   
was about. It was comming from Gary's room. Peering through the door she   
saw the light on and Sassami sitting cross legged in front of Gary who   
was in a sleeping bag and had a t-shirt on.   
  
"'Come away, Hawkins,' he would say; 'come and have a yarn with John.   
Nobody more welcome than yourself, my son. Sit you down and hear the   
news. Here's Cap'n Flint - I calls my parrot Cap'n Flint, after the famous   
buccaneer - here's Cap'n Flint predicting success to our v'yage. Wasn't   
you cap'n?'" read Gary from a small blue leather book.  
  
"Why is he speaking like that" she said to herself silently as Sassami   
sat there spellbound by the Ancient Epic being read to her.  
  
Gary continued "And the parrot would say" he got up and flapped his   
arms in a bird like way "'Peices 'o' eight!, Peices 'o' eight!, Peices 'o'   
eight!' till you wondered that it was not out of breath or till John   
threw a hankerchief over the cage" Sassami laughed at this.  
  
"what are peices 'o' Eight Gary?" giggled Sassami.  
"It was slang for gold coins, Spanish Dubloons they used to call it.   
How do you rekon it felt to be sailing on the Spanish Main, with nothing   
to trouble you, with action and adventure almost certain in you   
voyage?"  
"I don't know, I would've liked it" Smiled Sassami.  
Gary Ruffled Sassami's hair "You're a good kid, you're sister must be   
proud of you, you think you can sleep peacefully now?"  
  
Aieka smiled at this blushing a bit.  
  
"Yes Gary, thanks for reading to me" chimed Sassami.  
"Don't worry, I'll bookmark where we are right now and you can come   
whenever I'm free to continue the story, good night"  
"Good night Gary"  
  
Aieka froze for a second then ran back into her room and dived into her   
bed.  
  
"Ah shes sleeping, I wish I could read to you if I could read English"   
smiled Sassami.  
  
Aieka smiled warmly to herself "thank you Gary" she thouht to herself.  
  
**************  
  
The next morning signalled the morning of the great Carrot picking race   
that Gary and Tenchi made up yesterday. They picked a field that was   
spilling over with carrots Gary standing on one end of the field, Tenchi   
on the other.  
  
"Ready!" Smiled Gary.  
"When you are" nodded Tenchi.  
Gary turned to Ryo-ohki, eyes as wide as Oceans who jumped in the air   
to signify the start. The pair ran as fast as they could while picking   
up as many carrots they could, Tenchi was in front just and was starting   
to pull away, Gary looked and put on some extra speed, sadly this   
single mindness didn't do well for the object detection and avoidance part   
of the brain as he tripped on a large stone and went head over heels.  
"Ha!" laughed Tenchi, looking behind "I win and you get to- OFF!" said   
Tenchi as he slammed into Ryoko (or her bust to be more precise) and   
bouced back a couple of feet.  
"Hi Tenchi" chimed Ryoko "Why are you in such a hurry?".  
"I was winning a race" Grumped Tenchi as Gary ran past laughing his way   
to victory   
"You get the hard Chores!" he grinned "Oh hi Ryoko"  
"Hi Gary, had a nice sleep?" she asked.  
"I did but I had to comfort Sassami after she had a bad dream, read her   
part of one of my books"  
"Oh so thats why she was-ouch!" Ryoko rubbed her head after a child's   
hand apeared out of a black hole and slapped her on the head.  
Gary blinked and looked to Tenchi who was laughing nervously.  
"I'm gonna spend my hour of free time having a read up by the Shrine"   
he waved as he ran back to the house "seeya all later".  
  
***************  
  
Gary ran up the stairs on the hill with his book of the week,   
'Kidnapped!' running off the stairs onto a track he found a part where he could   
look out over the valley, layed against a tree and started to read. He   
had got so far though the first chapeter when he felt the wind being   
disturbed then a whisling sound, looking behind him he saw a manacal   
Ryoko leaping down and just about to slice him in half with her energy   
sword. Jumped out of his skin, he dived out of the way, Ryoko creating a   
trench that any water company workman would be proud of.  
  
"What are you doing!" shouted Gary as he got up "You nearly ruined my   
book!"  
"I know who you are Gary" eyed Ryoko.  
Gary steped back a bit in suprise "what?"  
"I know who you are by-ow ow ow ouch! stop okay!" said Ryoko as two   
hands came out of nowhere as slapped her on the head.  
By the time Ryoko had recovered from Washu's head wacking, Gary had   
pressed a button on his trousers which had made his main glove appear on   
his left hand. With that he moved his hand round and another, smaller   
black glove appeared on his right hand. Then another set of hand motions   
made a blue circle appear. The circle then went stick shaped as he   
grasped it in his right hand.  
"ooo he wants to fight back eh!" laughed Ryoko   
"Look theres no need for this" said Gary seriously.  
"Really? heres for cheating yesterday!" She leapt forward smaking her   
sword aggresivly against Gary's. Gary matched every move that Ryoko   
swung, though not with ease, it was clear that these two were very evenly   
matched.   
  
They put swords together in a test of stregnth, Gary went to the   
offensive, hacking and smacking his sword on above, sides and below. Again   
one player giving its all the other matching..just.  
  
After the two separated, Ryoko stepped back and disapeered. Gary looked   
around him then behind him to see Ryoko gliding as fast as she could   
towards him, her aim, to torpedo his mid section. He swooped his left   
hand glove and sweeped it sideways in front of him quickly. A faint blue   
shield came up seperating him from her. Didn't stop the force of the   
impact throwing him back 10 or 20 meters though. On the floor and trying   
to get up, he was pushed back down by the foot of Ryoko, her sword at   
his neck.  
  
"Oh poor Gary" giggled Ryoko "and they said you were highly trained."  
"I am" he said through gritted teeth, moving his fingers as he saw a   
big rock behind her dissapear.  
"Oh well, guess it was all for nothing, have a nice..wha-" She looked   
behind to see a rock appear out of a blue portal right at her. Using   
this distraction he used his legs to force her to the ground. Jumping on   
her , legs on her arms, pinning her to the ground he balanced his sword   
on the center of her hand and aimed it at her forehead.  
  
"Now you either promise you won't cause any more trouble or I'll sit   
like this for the rest of my hour and read my book okay?" he said as his   
book re-appears in his left hand. He looked up the path. There   
watching and probabbly watched the whole thing was Yosho and Tenchi.   
"A hahahaha!" laughed Gary nervously as he got up, Ryoko now really   
pissed off, looked to see what Gary was looking at then she started   
laughing nervously.  
  
Yosho said nothing while Tenchi was out of boots supprised!  
  
  
**************  
  
It was later that night.  
  
"A what?" said Aieka.  
"A Watcher, I go through different dimentions recording major events   
and basically looking at whats happening at that moment of time. Right   
now I'm at present day with my dimension".  
"Wow that must be cool" said Sassami excited.  
"Yeah it was till I resigned last year" he said with a sigh.  
"Resigned why?" asked Washu.  
"After I left your part of the world Washu I was assigned a new   
partner, his name I can't remember, we went to monitor a planet which was   
under serious cultural upheaval. While we were there, they were invaded by   
an unkown force, we hadn't see any of these ships before, millions of   
them. We were called by my boss to pull out, my parter though refused   
to leave and I went"  
"What happened to him?" asked Ryoko.  
"His head rolled through the portal at our hq back home, his body was   
never found" Gary said "his body never found and it shook me up so much   
that I put resignation and asked to spend a couple of years in this   
diamension.   
"So here you are" said Washu.  
"If you don't mind I need to take a walk, its a bit damaging on your   
ego when you're cover's been blown for the first time in 1000 trips"   
smiled Gary weakly.  
  
He made gesgures with his hands and a portal appeared which he walked   
through.  
  
Later wondering where Gary was, Aieka went outside looking for him, she   
looked at the house and saw him on top of the roof.  
  
"Gary!" shouted Aieka. He looked down.  
"Hey what you doing out here?"  
"Looking for you of course" she smiled "may I have permission to join   
you".  
"Of course Ms. Aieka wait a second" he opened a portal down below "walk   
through it". She did and appeared on the roof, a flat part. Gary was   
laying down looking at the stars. Next to him was a book.  
"Are you okay?" asked Aieka "I was worried about you."  
"I was as well, I was angry with myself, for putting myself with you   
people."   
"Why is it us?"   
"No its because how much I know about you" smiled Gary.  
Aieka gasped for a second "what?"  
"No not those kind of things, unofficial Watcher rule no1 never, ever   
get sexual gratification from your subjects." Gary laughed.  
"Then what then?"   
Gary sat up "I've seen you grow up Aieka, I've seen Washu and when she   
made Ryoko. I saw Ryoko attack and Sassami nearly killed with her pets,   
I saw how Yosho defeated Ryoko and imprison her, I saw your sadness   
when he never came back." He smiled "You looked so cute, so innocent when   
you were Sassami's age and size.".  
  
Aieka Blushed at this. Gary continued "Sassami reminds me of you, so   
small and fragile. Can ask a personal question". She nodded.  
"Do you love Tenchi so much that you'd ignore another man's love for   
you?" he asked.  
"I..I..I don't know" she stammered "I have feelings for him but I feel   
I'm fighting a loosing battle with Ryoko for him, he goes for a more   
outgoing style that she offers rather than my reserved style." a tear   
formed.  
"Oh Aieka don't think like that, love should never be fatal to one's   
mind or body" he wiped the tear off her face.  
"I saw you reading to Sassami last night" she sniffled "Will you read   
to me?".  
Gary smiled softly at this "Of course, I've got one here that'll cheer   
you up. Its called Pride and Predjudice a famous British novel written   
hundreds of years ago. He waved his arms around to summon something   
"I'll get a pillow for..damn" he sighed as his body disapeared leaving his   
head. Aieka laughed at this. Looking down he waved his arms again and   
his body was restored and pilliow fell on his head. He handed it to   
Aieka. She sat down and he opened the book and began.  
  
"Chapter 1. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man   
in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."  
  
Soon though the two were both asleep on the roof, her hand on top of   
the book.  
  
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	2. Pt.2

The next day was like the last, sunny with a total lack of clouds to ruin the scene. Aieka woke up to see   
Gary happily asleep; she saw the book and picked it up. She tried to read it but was unable. "The words"   
she thought "They're unnaturally small and set out in a totally different style to Traditional Japanese".  
  
"Morning" Gary mumbled and looked up "Like the book?" he asked.  
"I can't read it," she said staring at the small alien characters.  
"Ah that's written English." Gary smiled "made up by joining the languages of several different countries   
and cultures from different periods of Earth's history". Gary looked at his watch and yawned.  
"How did you become a Watcher Gary?" she asked.  
"I was in Secondary School, the last step before going to college. I was about 14. The Politics class I was in   
offered 2 months work experience in any Government department. I choose the Department of International   
Developments, which basically monitors world events. First week while shifting through files I found a   
load of forms for recruitment for a organization the secret services were doing with the DID. It was Called   
Watchman department. Not knowing what it was all about I filled the form in and dumped it in my   
Outgoing tray on my desk. Just as a joke really. Next day a group of men in suits came to my desk asking   
me to come with them. I did and was whisked to secret place somewhere (we were always blindfolded   
going in and out). I was vetted for Criminal offenses and Psychological illnesses. I was then trained by   
Special Forces, given courses in Martial arts and trained in this device. I call it the Dim-e. Then two years   
of training later I was ready and was explained what I was for and was assigned this Dimension and given a   
variety of 'subjects' to monitor. You were one of my first. I'm kind of proud of that".  
  
Aieka just listened and nodded. "You watched my whole life then?"  
Gary nodded "yes and we've got a file with the name 1st Princess of Jurai, Aieka, also 2nd Princess of   
Jurai, Sassami, your parents, Ryoko, Professor Washu, even Tenchi!"  
"What? So we are being monitored right now?" said Aieka looking around.  
Gary nodded "Yes, they've probably got a file of me as well"  
"What else have you seen here or elsewhere?"  
"Tell me how did you feel when you were attacked by Ryoko, when you saw hundreds of thousands,   
maybe millions die?" said Gary.  
Aieka thought for a second "Anger, despair, sadness for everyone who died and loneliness when Yosho   
left".  
"When I was watching this I had seen it all before a hundred times." sighed Gary.  
"You mean you had no Emotion, no regrets for all the people" said Aieka, angry from all the memories.  
"Its not in my job" Gary said emotion all drained.  
Aieka walked up to Gary slapped him as hard as she could "You senseless little creature, you know what   
you are, a coward!"  
"What could I do Aieka huh? Ryoko could've crushed me easily and I would've died without making not   
1% difference to the outcome. Sassami would've still been fighting for her life, Millions would still die,   
Yosho would still leave you in pursuit of Ryoko and you would still be lonely, innocent and scared little   
girl unable to do anything about it!"  
  
Aieka turned away; the memories were flooding back, tears again forming.  
  
"Aieka if you have seen what I have seen you would understand. I have seen Trillions of people die in an   
Hour, war machines of hate that would crush planets like this one in a matter of minutes. I know there are   
other Gods other than the Christian one. Many are for evil, and the minority is good. It hardened me so   
much that it comes as second nature to see death or suffering as much as it is to see Life and Joy. There is a   
saying Aieka that while one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic"  
  
"No!" cried Aieka "How could you be so heartless and cruel!"  
  
"That was why I left, after my partner died I saw what the job was doing to me" He put a hand on her   
shoulder "I...I'm sorry for everything that's happened, I'm sorry for being a coward".  
  
"Just get me off this roof! And take your book!" She threw it at him.  
  
He motioned towards the rear end of the roof and a portal appeared "There it'll take you down to your   
floor".  
She just ran, crying as went. Going through the portal. He sighed deeply, a tear streaked down his face, still   
emotionless "I wept when it happened Aieka" he whispered.  
  
*******************  
  
"Where's Gary, I haven't seen him all morning or Aieka" said Tenchi as he walked into lunch.  
"I don't know" answered Sassami "Aieka is in our room, she's too busy right now and mustn't be disturbed   
as well, Ryoko already had lunch and she went right after you came in".  
  
Gary was sitting in mid air, looking over the valley, and using a shield to keep him up there.   
"Hey what's up Gary?" asked Ryoko as she appeared next to him.  
"Not much, I upset Aieka when she asked me what I saw in all of her life" he was looking straight ahead   
"You're not here to knock 7 bells out of me again are you?"  
"No I was actually gonna explain why I went in like I did. I was talking with- ouch! Okay its getting old   
now" as a block of wood out of nowhere was dropped on her head. "Anyway when I heard that you were   
trained, I wanted to test you out that's all" she smiled.  
"You didn't reckon on what I use did you though?" he said looking a Ryoko.  
"I was gonna ask, how does it work?"  
"You have the ability to teleport right? This is done via traveling through what's known as dimension space.   
In this vast expanse, far greater than the size of the universe, lies an unlimited power source commonly   
known as energy. This glove or Dim-e is a simple conductor of that force, also to make commands quicker   
it can detect certain hand movements. I can open portals to an infinite amount of places, times and   
dimensions if I knew the right sequence of hand movements. The other glove just acts as a 'conductors   
stick', helping me summon, double handled swords, staffs, specially balanced bolts of energy for extra   
precision and finally what I'm sitting on right now shields, though it'll only stop the power of the foreign   
object coming towards me, (in my last fight, your body flying nearly at the speed of sound right at me), but   
not the force of the blow hence I was blown backwards, the shield automatically breaks my fall or stops   
and bodily harm lets say flying through walls. And there you go"  
"Well at least it can't read my personality and my mind," she said looking at the tight, black glove.  
"Well unpredictable you are, my report on you was correct" he smiled first time in hours.  
"What! You mean"   
"Yes I'm not a Watcher for nothing, I've got a record on you, not a criminal record, just a record of what   
you've done in your life. And Anyway I knew you were coming hundreds of years before you even   
existed!"  
"How?"  
"I met Washu accidentally while I was monitoring her. We talked and she was thinking of creating   
something just like you. After that I left, we were very good friends and it was my Dim-e that helped her   
along in the Dimension travel department".  
"So what did you do exactly to make Aieka so upset?" Ryoko Asked.  
"She asked me how I felt when I watched the carnage that you had unknowingly caused on Planet Jurai"  
"And you said?"  
"I said I had felt nothing" he said "but I lied. Aieka was one of my first subjects that I monitored".  
"What exactly were you doing when I attacked?" asked Ryoko.  
"I can remember it..."  
  
The scene is in space, a small ship sits there, and cloaked from view a man sits in his bunk inside. It's me.   
The alarm goes off I rush to monitoring station to see what the commotion is all about, all I have to do is   
look outside to see what's happening, a massive battle is raging about me. I look at my monitor and switch   
to the various ground views about the palace, peaceful, quiet. I was shouting at the screen, yelling for them   
to get out and away as fast as they could, but I was an invisible entity, they didn't know I was even there,   
then the explosions are hitting the ground, sending buildings down, ships are crashing into the ground,   
compounding the disaster and in the middle of it all is you smiling, eyes red with anger I thought, but on a   
scan I found it induced via some external means, I switch back to the devastation, Sassami is in the main   
chamber building, fallen from a great height, blood everywhere, what streets were left ran with the blood of   
thousands of innocents. And finally as you start to leave, Yosho moves to follow, Aieka is pleading for him   
to stay but he doesn't listen and takes off after you. I've turned the monitor off now, enraged that such a   
perfect and peaceful place the day before was turned to hell, that turned to sadness when I saw Aieka's face,   
and for the first time in my career as a Watcher I openly showed my feelings for a subject, weeping openly   
for her life turned upside down so many times over...  
  
"And that's it" he said looking down "all I remember"   
"Hmm pretty screwed up then huh?" Ryoko said "don't you blame me for what happened?"  
"It was beyond your control, I knew it was Kagato. I mean you don't wake up in the morning thinking 'I   
must destroy the Jurai' do you?" he smiled.  
"Well you got a point there, oh well up for sparring?" grinned Ryoko.  
"You do know how to take my mind off things," he laughed "Sorry but I should be helping Tenchi with the   
work, thanks anyway".  
With that he waved the shield off and he fell down into a portal waiting for him.  
"Cool wish I could do that" Ryoko smiled to herself.  
  
******************  
  
Aieka just lay on her bed staring up through the skylight. She had cried silently for hours, keeping the door   
locked.  
  
"How could he have done nothing? She thought "Him and his government or whatever he could've done   
something at least to warn us."   
"Maybe I won't ever get married, maybe I'll…. no! Never ever think like that.," she said to herself   
"It wasn't his fault anyway it was that Devil of a woman who did the damage to me and my family, who   
caused all of this" She stopped right there.  
"What have I done, the only man in a 1,000 years who has genuinly shown feelings for me and I reject him   
like a common criminal when all he was doing was watching, he probably didn't expect it either."   
  
Tears welled up again "Why am I so lonely?" she said out loud as a tear fell down her cheek. She   
remembered what he said the night before:  
  
"Love should never be fatal to the mind or the body"  
  
She thought again, fighting the tears back "Is Tenchi the only person I have feelings for? Do I have feelings   
for Gary, a person who has known me for my whole life?"  
  
She stood up now, overlooking a vast cliff and the ground far below, she was crying heavily.   
  
"Innocent, scared, little girl" kept reverberating around her when she jumped, falling to her death.  
  
Aieka woke up, her face drenched in tears. She wiped away her tears and put her clothes on. "I need to   
relax and have a bath".  
  
Walking out of the room she saw Sassami who immediately looked at her, worried. Aieka looked back in   
sadness as she walked to the baths.  
  
"Hey Tenchi is this the final field?" shouted Gary.  
"Yeah we've got this one to go then we'll be finished for the moment"  
"I was thinking of taking a bath after this that okay with you"   
"Sure if you want, in fact I'll one as well I'm caked in mud!"  
  
After the final Carrot harvesting was over Gary and Tenchi ran to the baths. Diving in and washing   
themselves, then sitting back and relaxing.  
  
"So how is life here now you've quit the Watchers?" Tenchi asked.  
"A definite change, I mean you'd have to rush everywhere doing everything, here, you do your work you   
relax and eat!"  
"Things hot up though when you realize you're part of a bigger plan"   
"Yeah I was thinking Tenchi how does it being related to the most powerful dynasty in the whole   
universe?"  
"Its one big thing, things you'll have to face when you get older and we do get older eventually, even I do!"  
Tenchi nods "ahmm one thing I'll defiantly hate to loose and that's my youth and the skills that Grandfather   
has taught me"  
"How long have you been training?"  
"Since I was about 8 how bout you?" asked Tenchi.  
"Only since I was 14, it ended when I was 16, pretty crammed in, it had to all work just right in the end"  
"Did you ever use your skills"?   
"Once or twice. First time my hand waving convinced my would be combatants that I was some kind of   
Sorcerer and they ran off, the next time I used them was against one of these big guys with a big axe. It was   
only my shield that kept me alive and it took a knock here and there"  
  
"Hey Tenchi" Ryoko said from the other side. Naked as usual.  
"Does she always run around naked in the baths?" asked Gary, eyebrow raised.  
"Ahuh you'd be surprised what pranks she'd pull just to get in my pants." grumbled Tenchi.  
"Guess you don't know everything about me then Gary" laughed Ryoko.  
  
The doors opened to the left of them and Aieka was heard walking in. She looked round to see Tenchi and   
Gary laughing, their backs turned to them. She stopped in her tracks, getting the 'now whatcha going to do?'   
stare from Ryoko. She decided to back out of the room leaving the boys to it. She ran out. Gary turned   
round to see the door open.  
  
"Was that her?" he asked. Ryoko nodded.  
"Man you must've shook her up pretty bad" said Tenchi.  
"I couldn't help it, I'll apologize to her tomorrow" said Gary as he rose "I'm going to take a walk to clear my   
head" with that he dressed and walked out as well. Ryoko seeing that Gary had gone grinned evilly at   
Tenchi.  
  
"Why are you looking at me like that Ryoko...Ryoko no!" he gasped as she pulled him down under, his   
arms waving above the surface.  
  
***********  
  
Gary was walking down the steps towards the house when he saw Aieka in front of her. "Ms. Aieka!" he   
shouted as he rushed down the stairs. Aieka turned round then "Aieka I'm sorry for what I said for it is not   
the truth!"  
Aieka blinked "How? You sounded so serious!"  
"No I wanted to drown out the memories just like you do" he put his hands on her shoulders "to tell the   
truth, I wept after what happened on Jurai, having watched you for most of your life and then seeing it all   
taken away from you was too much for me"  
She just stared back at him.  
"Will you forgive me?"  
She looked down "It is I who should be sorry, I should not have blamed you for what happened. You could   
not have stopped it".  
He smiled "you're cute".  
They Hugged. When the embrace finished Aieka looked back up into Gary's eyes and said, "Will you read   
to me please".  
"Pride and Prejudice?" he asked. Aieka nodded.  
"Sure thing" he waved a portal open "Walk this way Princess"  
  
Another night of Storytelling of the tales of romance passed as the cloudless night drew on, they retired to   
the roof again and continued there, Gary reading through to the fascinated Aieka, and soon once again they   
were both asleep. A rush of wind above him though awakened Gary as it buffeted his face. He looked up.   
  
Nothing.  
  
Looking around once again he decided that he'd better put Princess Aieka to bed and retire himself.   
Opening a portal, he picked her up gently and sleepily wandered in. The house again was silent; Ryoko   
peered outside Tenchi's room as she kept her non-stop watch over him. Gary, coming out of nowhere,   
walked past with the happily dozing Princess in his arms. Opening the door into the Princess's room he   
closed it again as he went inside, only to appear just outside a moment later, wandering past Ryoko again,   
totally oblivious to her head poking out of the door.  
  
He wandered into his room and crept into his sleeping bag, he thought he'd be snoring as soon as his head   
hit the pillow but his eyes stayed open and wide. He got back up "may as well see if anyone else is up" as   
he put his Dim-e on and waved a portal open.  
  
***********  
  
Washu was tapping away as usual. She grinned widely as she pressed enter and a cup appeared next her.   
Grabbing the cup, she took a swig of the chocolaty mixture that was inside the cup.  
  
"Aha!" she smiled "Finally the perfect cup of Hot Chocolate has been discovered!"  
"Wow that's my Washu, always working to solve the most serious of the Universe's problems," laughed   
Gary behind her.  
"Ah Gary, long time no see" she said "Do you want to see the old me?" she asked as she turned around.  
"Yeah" he nodded "personally I got on better with the old Washu," he said as he rubbed his eyes.  
She nodded and smiled as she transformed back to her old self. She clapped her hands and another pillow   
appeared under Gary and he sat down.  
  
"So are you still the wild mad scientist I used to know?" said Gary as he sipped his Hot Chocolate.  
"Of course, in moderation though after seeing what Kagato did in his life" nodded Washu.  
"Yeah now in convenient slices after Tenchi went through with him" smiled Gary.  
"You watched it?"  
"Of course! I am in charge of watching this Dimension of the Universe. In other Universes Kagato is still at   
large, he killed every one of you and still controls Ryoko, taking many millions and a couple of watcher's   
lives"  
"That serious?" she said sipping her chocolate.  
"Yeah, he had found out about the real me after we parted company so I had to be extra careful"  
Washu laughed, "You did look a bit too handsome for a supposed dork".  
"Hey that was my second assignment! Seeing the creator of such a formidable weapon like Ryoko was an   
honor," he grinned.  
"Well I am the greatest Scientist of time in the Universe!" she announced mockingly.  
Gary went serious for a while "You do realize that Ryoko must never gain control of all three of her gems?"  
"I know, she'll never get hold of them I'll make sure of that, after Planet Jurai"  
"Especially after Planet Jurai" he said sipping his drink "hey you spiked this!" he laughed.  
"Of course" she grinned evilly.  
"Tell me did you ever learn to read English?"  
"Easy!" she said "Its muddled and very basic but I did it in the end and those Jules Verne novels were   
excellent"   
"I glad you enjoyed your present, they should be about 10,000 years old or something like that"  
"Yeah I put them on a shelf somewhere"  
"And the Quake III game I lent you?"  
"Erm..I melted it by mistake, you understand don't you?"  
Gary laughed, "Thank god I copied it!"  
Washu raised her glass "To friendship" she smiled.  
"Friendship!" he said raising his glass "A man by the name of Oscar Wilde once said 'Alcohol if taken in   
sufficient quantities can bring about the required effects of drunkenness'"  
The pair smiled at each other. Gary gazed about the vast lab, changing every now and then "I remember   
your first lab, smaller but it looked more like the typical mad scientist's lab".  
"I know but I thought I'd get a bigger place, suits me you know" she said looking up herself.  
"Yeah guess it does" he sipped again "before I get totally slaughtered, tell me did you notice any weird   
activity about 30 seconds before I arrived in here?"  
"I did yes, something went over the house at a very, very fast speed" she brought up her console, Gary   
appeared next to her "see here".  
"Strange I didn't hear anything though only felt the wind register as it passed," he said as he looked at the   
diagrams flashing up "did you get any frequency readings on that?" She brought them up. As the readings   
flashed up he looked for a second then stopped "Stop, go back to point 32". Back she went.  
  
"There!" he pointed, "The remains of an Entry signature but no sign of an exit signature, where did this   
reading stop?"  
"Right up against the hill here" Washu pointed.  
He put his Dim-e next to the screen and pressed a small holographic button on it a search program came up   
on screen.  
"What are you doing?" asked Washu.  
"Comparing the Dimension signature to all the Watchers" he nodded once "search underway".  
Thousands of images flashed past "There are nearly a million of us Washu" he said, as he looked through   
the screen "a small minority of them are either dead, missing or confirmed Rouge"  
"Rouge you mean, on the run?"  
"Uhuh" he said "Many rent their services out, disrupting the balance of time and history of the particular   
area they are rouge in, others have been driven mad by what they've seen or by some freak accident when   
too much Dimension energy has been absorbed by the Dim-e, it needs to discharge it so it goes through the   
body and hits the head right on, shorting it and either making the owner brain-dead or insane"  
"Who is the most dangerous out of the lot all the Rouge watchers?"  
A silence as the screen came up with a match "him" he pointed, as he looked at the picture "my partner,   
Yuri".  
"He died though didn't he?"   
"Yep but that's not the whole story. Somehow his Dim-e teleported his body into Dimension space, the   
space which lies between your departure portal and your destination. Once there his Dim-e absorbed so   
much energy that it molded itself to his body, the energy started his heart but replaced his blood, making   
him almost immortal and his power limitless"  
"That sucks"  
"Yeah that too" he smiled "and he's decided to seek out the person who left him on orders, me"  
"Is that so?" said Ryoko as she sat in mid air "First you decide that I'm not fit enough to have my gems and   
now you say your nutter of a sidekick has arrived for a visit"  
"It was his choice, he wants to see me, either to kill me or for something else but he's' one of the most   
powerful forces in all of the millions of dimensions. He has not harnessed the power of the energy; he is the   
energy of the dimensions" he turned away from Ryoko "If I was you I'd stay out of this, but you won't,   
Washu I'll see you in a minute, if any thing happens make sure you get me back here".  
Washu nodded.  
  
***********  
  
The Plains just outside the House and next to the Carrot fields was the scene of a small time cyclone, the   
wind speed was increasing. Gary appeared in the middle of the large plain. Then some way in front of him   
appeared Yuri.  
  
"Ah" Smiled Gary "The nightmare appears, what brings a Rouge to my part of the world".  
Yuri shook his head slowly "So rude to the person who saved your skin".  
"You would've been alive if you hadn't have gone down just before the planet exploded." He grinned,   
"Maybe even had shared the cute little ladies here".  
"You want to know why I'm here?" Gary nodded slowly "Here to show you what I have done since you   
left me with the parts of the planet that had just exploded. Since I was resurrected by the Energy, I have   
vowed to stop what our planet has been doing for the last 100 years, watching and keeping tabs on   
everyone else, you realizing just how many people are on the records at Watchman HQ. Countless amounts   
of people with their age, sex, even their favorite food and color on a Friday. But nothing has been done to   
stop potential disasters happening. We stood by as the force of several suns blew a whole system away.   
Stood by while countless trillions died in battle and what have to show for it. One 1000 page progress   
document delivered on the dot, every Tuesday to the Prime Minister. Well I couldn't stand by and watch   
this so I decided to use my power to gain control of each dimension one by one, crushing revolt with the   
energy that resides in me and ruling over the greatest empire ever known, the Jurai my control the most   
powerful force known ever but I have the power to nullify that in an instant."  
  
"You seriously believe that this will stop bloodshed, humanity and countless other races have to instinct to   
survive, survive through people like your tyranny. They'll rise and rise again, more will die than ever   
before and you can be really proud of that I'm sure. I don't care about your master plans what is your real   
purpose of being here?"  
  
"The only obstacle to my victory in this Dimension is Tenchi, Tenchi sadly could not join us tonight as he   
is a little tied up." Gary then saw in his mind Tenchi unconscious, maybe being mentally tortured by Yuri.   
"The death of your friends and you dearly beloved Aieka is also imminent."  
  
"No they aren't" he said as he stared "I am Watchman no.52 Thatch. My mission is ensure the safety of the   
said subjects and ensure the destruction of Rouge no.34532" he said moving his hands, clearly expecting   
Yuri to do something "those are my orders under UN act 23wA Dimension authorizing operation   
Watchman, me and my comrades will uphold that act and will rather die than let you destroy all time and   
history."  
  
"Oh well, I wanted you to stand aside but sadly its over" smiled Yuri as he pulled his hand back and threw   
it forward, his whole arm acting as a cannon firing off a massive onslaught of dark blue energy smacking   
the Gary's shield and sending him flying the hundreds of meters back towards to the house.  
  
Flying through the thick perimeter wall.   
  
Then the outer wall.   
  
The living room wall.   
  
The outer wall on the other end.   
  
Then finally slamming into the perimeter wall on the other end of the house.  
  
"Ack!" shrieked Washu as Ryoko just stared at the massive power exhibited and this was just the start.   
They both watched through the screen that Washu had summoned.   
"Ryoko!" Washu said in panic "Get everyone in here, Gary isn't going to do it".  
  
Gary tried to breath as he felt his chest, one rib broken, maybe two, and one on each side. He tried to get up   
then fell back down, as his knee was dislocated, clicking that back into place he got up just to see Yuri   
arrive in front of him.  
  
"Ahh ribs broken? Lets help you there" putting a hand on his shoulder he sent a wave of Blue energy   
focusing one part of the body. Gary shouted out in pain as the next pair of ribs broke.  
  
"Now you know the real meaning of pain Gary, I'll show you how to fry a brain, oriental style!" laughed   
Yuri as he placed his hand on Gary's head. Gary opened his mouth to scream. Out of it came a beam of   
dark blue light, his eyes also shining out like torches.  
  
"Common Aieka get out! Get out!" shouted Ryoko as she carried Sassami.  
  
"What where is Tenchi and Gary?" asked Aieka as she was nearly kicked down the stairs.  
"Tenchi is gone for now and Gary is dying now move will you!"  
"What about Tenchi?" said Aieka?  
"I don't know where he's disappeared!" said Ryoko "all we need to do is move to safety"  
  
They all staggered into Washu's Lab, Washu sealing the door behind.  
"Wait what about Gary?" said Aieka seeing the door poof in a cloud of smoke. Washu pointed to the   
display to see smoke come out of Gary's mouth as the heat and sheer power of the energy began to take   
hold.  
"No, Gary please don't" she said tears forming. It was happening all over again, her hopes of certain   
happiness snatched again right at the finish line. She turned to Washu "We must get him out of there before   
he dies!".  
"I'll try" she said as she tapped away on her keyboard for a second then she walked over to Ryoko moving   
her arm outstretched pointing towards a certain point. "Okay when I say lunge forward and pull back with   
all your strength!"  
She waited for a second then tapped enter and shouted "now" a portal opened and Ryoko put her arm in   
and dragged Gary out of Yuri's grasp. Washu quickly closed and sealed the portal.  
  
Gary was panting extremely badly. Suffering from serious shock to the nervous system and the brain he   
collapsed on a heap on the floor.  
  
"No!" Aieka said as she placed his head in her lap "Why am I so lonely"  
"Aieka, its not your fault" Gary managed despite the serious shaking.  
Washu rushed over with an injection and quickly stabbed it into his arm and shaking stopped.  
  
"Thanks" he said as he breathed painfully "all I need now are 4 new ribs and I'm a-okay!" he grinned   
through the pain.  
  
"Where's Tenchi?" asked Ryoko looking at Yuri through the screen.  
"Yuri abducted him, imprisoned him in his mind so he can't escape or activate any of his powers. Yuri will   
kill him"  
"Can't Tsunami help him?" asked a tearful Sassami.  
Gary shook his head "If he was killing him by physical means then maybe but Yuri is systematically killing   
his brain. Even if Tsunami revived him, he would be brain dead to do anything at all".   
"We need to do something quick!" said Aieka "he'll find us soon"  
"Yeah but can he beat the force field?" Smiled Washu.   
"Easy" said Gary "Simply find a point inside the said shield and you've simply bypassed it."   
"Then can we do the same thing with Yuri?" asked Ryoko.  
"His field is a solid state field, an egg shape, with every space filled, no entry for the smallest of portals"   
gasped Gary through the pain "What we need is Tenchi, only he can do it, I can find him then Ryoko can   
do the most powerful bolt possible, weakening the shields so far that Tenchi can slice his left arm, the   
conductor will be severed and therefore kill him instantly. The resulting explosion of the pent up energy   
though will destroy the planet. That's where I come in"  
"What can you do now?" said Washu giving Gary a hankie after he hacked up some blood.   
"Cheers. The weakened shield and Tenchi's sword attack will create a space, just big enough for me to get   
through, grab his arm and take it somewhere where it will do no harm, it might take me in the explosion, it   
might not but unless you lot like living on an asteroid belt then it's a risk I'll have to take"  
"You can't!" cried Aieka "you're too weak" she said tears forming and dropping onto his head "I forbid it   
by law".  
He slowly, painfully got up and turned giving Aieka a smile "I am above the law" a portal appeared below   
and he slowly started to go down through it "Ryoko remember the plan, just keep Yuri occupied and don't   
get killed"  
"Consider it done," grinned Ryoko.  
Gary then disappeared Aieka who was fighting back the tears fell to the ground.  
  
  
The room Tenchi was in was black. He grabbed his head again as energy fired through his mind. In his   
mind, nearly every nightmare he had imagined in his whole life came to life at once, it felt as though each   
brain cell was being popped one by one. A figure appeared in his mind and Tenchi was kneeling down next   
to him, neck outstretched. The figure raised his sword, about to give the blow. The sword swooped down   
then darkness.  
  
"Tenchi mate!" said Gary as he picked him up spitting out some more blood.  
"Gary, what happened, why are you seriously hurt?"  
"I'm okay, you need to use your light hawk wings to defeat Yuri, if you chop off his left arm he will lose   
his powers, Ryoko is currently keeping him busy, but she won't stay alive for long if he gets near her."  
Tenchi nodded.  
"I'll open a portal and you get in there and do what you have to do" he said waving his arm and opening a   
portal. Tenchi began to walk through it but an arm barred his way.  
"Wrong portal, that ones to Las Vegas" he tried to laugh but he coughed up more blood he waved again.  
"This one now hurry before I puncture a lung or something!"  
"But what about you?" worried Tenchi.  
"Look bugger off out there and help Ryoko, the last thing I need you to do after I've gone through all this   
trouble to free you is for you to stand here asking about my health! I've got something else to do before the   
big finale" he said, obviously fighting the painful urge to collapse in a heap.  
Tenchi nodded and walked into the new portal. After he left Gary waved a new portal open and staggered   
into it, hacking some more blood onto the floor behind him.  
  
  
"So" Yuri smiled "they've sent the daemon into the fray!"  
"Nice to know that you've read up on me Yuri" nodded back Ryoko.  
"I've read enough to kill you Ryoko"   
"Only if I stand still" she said as she jumped back, keeping away from Yuri as he came closer. Yuri   
responded by firing off another bolt of energy at Ryoko. Just phasing out of the way in time she responded   
blasting back at him, the bolts absorbed by Yuri's shield.  
  
"What a cheat!" smiled Ryoko as she dodged another bolt, getting off balanced in the air she corrected,   
looking down she saw that he was gone.  
  
"Where?" she thought, as she looked around "behind" came the urgent reply from Washu as a Blue beam   
swept down right on her head. A small electric explosion was heard as Ryoko formed her energy sword and   
threw her arms behind her to block the blow, the two swords clashing with massive force. Kicking at Yuri's   
shield, using it as a springboard to get distance between him and her she turned to block smaller bolts of   
energy.  
  
Moving at high speed, she swooped past Yuri, slashing with her sword. The energy field had weakened   
slightly as she kicked out with all her strength and the big Yuri fell back to earth.  
  
"Good start" she smiled to herself as she watched him get back up effortlessly.  
  
  
"Watchman HQ this is n52" said into the Holographic display as he sat in dimension space.  
"Thatch!" said the operator on the other side "you back from holiday early?"  
"Erm" he managed to smile "I think I'll need a reservation after what's just happened"   
"Where?" said the operator "Hilton, Savoy, Ritz?" he joked.  
"Hospital, intensive care preferably"  
"Why what's happened?"   
"Yuri's here at D34 Sol sector, Watcher, seriously hurt, subjects under intensive watch and protection in   
serious danger!"  
"Right" said the serious voice "What can we do for you then?"  
"Now we know where exactly he is, shut down all dimension in area 34,43,67,87 authorization G. Thatch"  
"Right" Operator said as he tapped in the area code "Activity shut in 10 seconds, Patching direct source to   
your Dim-e, you'll be able to operate but Yuri will lose 75% of his direct energy source"  
"Cool, cheers mate I owe you one" said Gary as he tapped out and formed another portal and staggered   
through "and I didn't cough up HACK!" he spurted as he walked.  
  
  
"Tenchi!" cried Ryoko happily as she dived away from another bolt "Something's happened to him, his   
shield's weakened a lot but he's very strong"  
  
Tenchi in full Jurain battle gear, not really used to Dimension traveling, fell out of the portal, standing up   
he saw a blast of energy heading right for him, focusing hard he summoned a light wing to block the   
energy. The head area of his field took the brunt of the blow, flexing inwards and nearly touching his head   
but he stayed firm despite the force.  
  
"Nice" he grinned "could make toast with that thing".  
"Speaking of toast, that's gonna be you in" Yuri stopped " what, damn he's called a cut off of all dimension   
power in this sector, I'm weakened without it!"  
  
Tenchi walking towards Yuri, changed into the next stage of clothing and again via the power of the light   
hawk wings, he summoned his sword.   
  
"Weak huh?" he grinned "It'll cost an arm to get it back" Yuri tried to summon his energy sword in time   
only to see his left arm fall off thanks to the weak force field, now open was spilling out Dimension energy,   
forcing Tenchi back despite his force field.   
  
The severed arm, now floating was glowing brighter and brighter as energy inside it was looking for a place   
to dissipate inside, rushing around faster and faster, ready to explode. Gary appeared behind Yuri, slicing   
his head with an energy sword and grabbing the arm as bright light enveloped the night as the arm   
exploded. Then the night was still again. Yuri, Gary and the arm had gone.  
  
  
The days after what had happened in the first week of June were kind of solemn, Sassami made snacks for   
the private funeral of Gary Thatch. Everyone turned out in force, even Yosho who in his old age had slept   
through the entire battle. Aieka was inconsolable, seeing this as a repeat of the last 700 years, Ryoko was   
sad that she never had the chance to try again with Gary but Tenchi had lost a friend who had tried to ease   
the tension in the house thanks to the feuding of the two women. Sassami tried her best and vowed to learn   
English so she could complete Treasure Island. Washu though had lost an old friend, one of the few that   
actually kept in touch with her every 1,000 years or so. Oh and the Satellite receiver was still stuck on the   
Soap channel after Gary's Dim-e had hit it as he flew through the house, the hole still evident but was   
going to be converted into a convenient paper doorway for easy access to the house.  
  
As the Headstone was laid next to the Lake, Washu watched from a nearby hill, a tear trickled down her   
cheek, still though, she was emotionless and looked on the good times she had with her.  
  
"Professor Washu?" a male voice asked.  
Washu turned and looked to see a western man in a light suit.  
"How did you know my name?" she asked ready for anything at this point in time.  
"Commander McCann of Operation Watchman Professor" he said, bowing slightly.  
"You have no Dim-e," she said, wiping the tear away "how did you get here?"  
"Oh my buddies in the air force behind me gave me a lift" he pointed to a clearing behind them where a   
dark gray, sleek aircraft, of much different design and construction to the any of the craft on this planet   
"made with the best materials the Galaxy can offer" he smiled.  
"And why are you here, to pay your last respects to Gary?"  
"Well yes and no, I can't really stay long as this infringes on the thousands of peace agreements in force by   
my…employers. Anyway I'm here to offer any support that I can in this time of crisis, what do you really   
need right now?"  
"Well" Washu thought.  
"I hear your TV is on the blink?" suggested McCann.  
"What? How"   
"Don't worry, I'll send for it to be repaired tomorrow, now my plane awaits, you'll need to join your   
friends down below for the funeral service"  
"Erm thanks" said Washu, grief covered by confusion as she walked down the hill.  
  
As she went out of view another man walked next to McCann.  
"Arranged?" he asked.  
"Of course" McCann grinned, "you'll be sent in the morning, don't be late for them" he said walking to his   
plane.  
  
  
After the service, Aieka was left to sit with the headstone as she watched the sun set.  
  
"It always happens to me Gary," she said as a light breeze blew "When I feel I've captured happiness,   
something happens to steal it from me. All I have are your books and I can't even read them!" she mustered   
as she put her head in her hands and cried.   
"To tell the truth, Gary, I loved you, with my heart. I love Tenchi too but he is a lost cause, he will never be   
happy under an endless life of protocol and privilege. If I want Tenchi to be happy, he must stay here where   
he feels where he belongs," she sobbed.  
  
"But you were the only person to understand my position, taking my mind off my dilemma by reading to   
me." She put a hand on the headstone "thank you Gary" she said, tears streaking down her face as she   
walked into the house.  
  
  
The next day brought a knock at the door. A repairman from the Satellite TV Company had arrived to fix   
the TV.  
  
Washu opened the door and smiled.  
  
"Won't keep you long ma'aam" smiled the repairman as he took his shoes off and walked into the living   
room "your TV?" he said as he turned it on.  
  
"Yes the receiver broke during a moment of stress" Washu lied.  
"I'll connect a new one, I've been instructed to give you the details to claim your years free subscription   
which includes the new digital service." He said as he replaced the receiver "forms in my bag".  
"Wow" smiled Washu "2500 channels in every language of the world. Fancy"  
"Also is there a Ms. Aieka in the house I need to deliver a message for her.  
  
"I am she" said Aieka, walking down the stairs in her Kimono she used for mourning in.  
"Ah" he beamed "I've been told to give you this box from my…uh…employers Ms. Aieka" he smiled   
"That's all I need to do, push your card in the slot of the receiver and it will work properly" with that he   
bowed in respect of the occasion and left.  
  
"What's in the box Aieka?" wondered Washu.  
"I have no idea" she said as she opened it to find a remote control with one button on it and a note.  
"What does it say?" jumped Washu.  
"Please press the button to receive a gift of a lifetime?" she said, picking up the remote control "well here   
goes".   
  
As soon as Aieka pressed the button a door appeared in front of her.  
"Wow" she said sarcastically "a door"  
"Open it you idiot and see what's inside"   
  
Cautiously opening the door she slowly walked through. The scene she walked into was one of complete   
paradise. She walked onto a beach, the clear, light blue water lapping up onto the shore, the white sand   
clean and clear as a wind cooled the air to a pleasant heat.   
  
Looking at the sea she walked forward a hand landed on her shoulder, she jumped into the air in shock and   
turned round in anger to see the sweet face of Gary smiling softly. Aieka's face of rage turned to abject joy   
as she hugged Gary.  
  
"What happened you never came back!" she said with tears in her eyes, tears of joy this time.  
"Well I dropped the arm and Yuri into separate suns to burn up and returned to HQ, I was hospitalized for a   
couple of days while my ribs healed and while I had brain scans to see what damage there was. After that I   
pulled a few favors from the brass and here I am, with you, alone on a desert island." He said grinning.  
  
"I'm so happy you're back Gary" she cried.  
"Hey you gonna try changing out of those clothes Aieka?" he said with an eyebrow raised "ugh! Feels like   
somebody died".  
"I will after I do one thing" she said smiling shyly.  
"What's that Princess?"  
  
Aieka kissed Gary softly as she put all her frustration behind her and went for it. Gary blushed after the   
kiss.   
"I love you Gary" she smiled softly.  
"I love you too Aieka".  
The two embraced and Aieka walked off to open the door, only to find it gone.  
"Where's it gone?" she said confused.  
"Where's what gone?"  
"The door"  
"oh damn! I left my Dim-e back at HQ, hmm guess we'll have to wait to be recus agg!" Two young girls   
and an older woman cut off Gary for a second.  
  
"I'm so happy your back Gary!" said Little Washu tearfully.  
"Read to me Gary read to me!" said Sassami excited.  
"No spar with me Gary spar with me!" laughed Ryoko.  
"Tenchi say something!" said Gary weighed down by all the people hanging off him. Aieka giggled.  
  
Tenchi smiled and said "Something".  
  
Fin  
  
  
  
  



	3. Pt.3

***This Fanfic is written without the permission of both Pioneer  
and AIC but I'm not selling it so please do not sue me. Actually  
what you can do Pioneer and AIC is reopen sales of Tenchi in the UK   
(you know how much it costs to get the stuff from America!!!!!!!)  
PLEASE!!!!***  
  
"Nice dark room" Gary thought to himself as he felt around for an   
exit as somehow he was without his Dim-e. Feeling a big set of doors  
in front and behind (both were locked) he moved to the middle and   
sat. Outside he could hear the bustle and hustle of a crowd, a big   
crowd, and then a foreign voice blabbed some words over a tanoi,  
the crowd cheered.  
  
Then out of nowhere a hidden side door was opened and Gary was shoved  
a sliver dagger and his Dim-e. "Port out and you die" a man whispered  
in broken English into his ear. He nodded still wondering what was   
happening. The doors in front opened and he was pushed out into a   
small, Roman style amphitheater. The difference was there was a   
massive screen up in the corner showing stats of the two fighters.   
  
"Oh look its me" he smiled as his saw his picture come up along with  
some unreadable writing. He looked at himself now he was in light.  
He was in his body suit for black ops. Another picture came up which  
made Gary freeze in horror as he blinked and swept his gaze to the   
other end. His opponent, holding a dagger (though rather expertly)  
was Aieka, up in her War costume and face paint. Just as shocked  
as he was.  
  
Then the person supposed to be the referee waved to the two, starting  
the match. Gary was hesitant at first, knowing that what Ryoko could  
do physically, Aieka could do with the same amount of strength  
with the brick wall at light speed hitting power of her Shield.  
Aieka though only had one blade while Gary could call up another  
via his Dim-e.  
  
Aieka was on the move as she zoomed up to him, not right up to him   
but close enough for striking range. Gary not wanting to kill the   
woman she loved made his move, slashing his blade downwards to her   
sword arm as she swept in, hoping to cut and disable and therefore  
put her towards a possible submission. But Aieka ducked down and side  
swept at Gary's feet. Gary caught off guard fell on the ground,  
pain in his legs as she had applied her force field to her feet for  
maximum effect, his shins wouldn't recover from that for a while.  
  
Gary rolled, dodging the stabs of Aieka's blade, not really wanting  
to die at that moment in time he flipped himself up and jumped away.  
Aieka then came right at him at high speed, the yellow tint of her   
field showing as she tried to disable him with a body spear. Dodging  
with his reflexes from his training he sidestepped and grabbed onto  
her midsection, whirling her stomach round and into his waiting  
knee. Aieka gasped then groaned feebly. He dropped her to the ground  
and backed off waiting for her to get up.  
  
She did, after checking herself off she nodded, "all square" she   
muttered as she moved in quick now, engaging in blade to blade   
combat. Gary under serious pressure to match each move that she made,  
then he made his mistake by using both hands to block a low stab,  
leaving Aieka that split second window to choose which part of his   
body to punish for the mistake. She chose the face, the blow pushing  
him back several steps, Aieka continued with a high kick which was   
countered by Gary only to have Aieka's other leg kick out Gary's  
already sore feet from under him, his head hitting the floor first.  
  
Aieka jumped on top of his back, ready to dive the blade into his   
skull, he could feel the whish of the air as the blade came down on   
his head. He closed his eyes and said "I forgive you Aieka".  
  
Gary woke up.  
  
He was in a sweat, still on the desert island, it was night and him  
and Aieka had decided to stay out on the beach rather than go home.  
Everyone had been really happy that he had survived but then insisted  
that he pay the cost for the funeral. But those thoughts were for   
later, the fact of the matter right now was..."what the hell was that  
dream?" he said out loud.  
  
"What was that Gary?" said Aieka as she woke next to him, in a   
separate sleeping bag because they weren't of course a couple of   
'those' morals. "Nothing I just a really freaky dream that's all go   
to sleep" he smiled as he wiped the sweat away. "I'm not really tired  
at all," she said leaning up. "Aieka apart from your mainstream  
powers, what other fighting skills were you trained in?" "Well I was  
trained in Jurain close combat arts, very limited sword fighting  
skills if I ever used a Light sword and unarmed combat" "What kind  
of close combat skills?" "Well with a variety of hand to hand   
weapons, poles, pikes, normal blades and one which I am proud of, the  
use of the dagger" Aieka said as if detailing what she did at the   
local Women's Institute. "Wow sadly, poles and pikes were out of   
fashion when I trained" he smiled weakly "Only really small blades  
and knives for me, I was taught several different styles of swordplay  
taken from around Earth, fencing was one of them" said. "Something  
wrong?" said Aieka, noticing Gary's weak face. "No it was dream,  
you know one of those ones that have you thinking all the" he stopped  
as his watch beeped. "What?" asked Aieka as he stared at the watch  
"what?" she was defiantly puzzled now. "My god!" he gasped "I'm   
missing the Footy!" he said leaping out of his bag and pulling on his  
clothes "I'll keep the door open for us later eh?" he smiled as he   
hopped over to Aieka and kissed her on the forehead as he was getting  
his jeans on and dashing out through the door. Aieka frowned "I think  
the greatest danger to a relationship is not another woman, it's his  
football club".  
  
*********************  
  
Gary burst out of the kitchen with a can of Guinness that he had   
imported in, wearing the shirt of his favorite team, Arsenal (of   
course) and a pack of Pringles out of a big box that he brought  
with him to see the shrine that was the wide screen TV. Sadly though  
the vision of perfection was shattered by a group of tittering  
girls.  
  
"Oh Ben he's so dreamy, with that fake English accent" sighed   
Mihoshi. "Mihoshi how did you figure that out?" sniggered Ryoko "You  
don't even know your own accent!" "Shhhh" said Washu "He's proposing  
to Meg". "Ahhh that's so sweet" smiled Sassami as she watched with  
Ryo-ohki on her head.  
  
Enter Gary stage left. "Oi!" he said "I reserved this place for the  
match, the F.A cup semi finals are more important than some sodding  
crappy episode of Sunset Beach!" "But its getting to end, Bens   
proposing" pleaded Sassami. "Well he's going to have to propose  
later, I've got to watch the half hour of pre match stats and   
interviews!" grumbled Gary. "Look why we put a tape in a record the  
match for you to watch" said Ryoko. "No! I had this plac.." cut off.  
"Gary!" said Aieka as she walked through the door "You listen to me,  
you'll let me and the girls watch…Ben proposing!!!!" she jumped in   
front of the TV "why didn't you tell me!" "You were with the eligible  
bachelor over there" said Ryoko. Gary sighed in defeat and crawled  
back into the kitchen as soon as he had walked in though a cry came  
from the living room "its finished!" and with that, Gary fell on the  
floor with exasperation.  
  
"Ahh no no no!" said Gary as he swigged some of his Guinness and ate  
some Pringles "Close him down Adams Close him!" he muffled as he   
munched. Tenchi walked past as Gary was watching the match. "What  
you watching?" Tenchi asked. "Watching the match, Arsenal vs.   
Newcastle!" he grinned as he unhooked another can of Guinness from  
the 6-pack "here have one and sit down!" he smiled. "Oh I shouldn't  
really," Tenchi said nervously. "Come on its entertainment  
and you wont get ya head kicked in like you would after a real life  
football match so sit down!" Tenchi sat down and took a Guinness  
and watched the game.  
  
Minutes later.  
  
"Penalty!" shouted Tenchi "He went right in there!" "Hard tackle  
and they gotta pay for it, the refs walking up, Yellow card!!!"  
gasped a disgusted Gary. "Ya need glasses referee!" Tenchi said   
gulping down some Sake as well as Guinness. "Hey what's all the noise  
about?" said Nobiyuki as he walked down the stairs. "F.A cup   
Semi-Final" Gary said while staring at the TV "Arsenal vs. Newcastle  
here have this and join us" he said throwing a can of Guinness  
behind him, Nobiyuki catching it just. "Sure haven't got anything  
else to do" Nobiyuki shrugged.  
  
Minutes (and several near misses) later.  
  
"Viera runs forward," said Gary. "He crosses it forward to Bergkamp"  
continued Tenchi. "Who goes for run straight through the center"  
added Nobiyuki, glued to the TV. "He goes to shoot!" said a very   
excited Yosho. "Yessss!" The 4 shouted jumping into the air. Gary and  
co rushed around the place in jubilation kinda putting the   
frighteners on Ryo-ohki as she wandered through the house. Eventually  
they reconvened at the TV singing a rousing (and drunk) chorus of   
"You're not singing anymore!", "Who ate all the pies" and "Newcastle  
are going down". Aieka walked down the stairs to see what was   
happening. She was shocked to see 4 grown men dancing around with   
cans of beer and bottles of sake on their heads doing a conga line.  
  
"Gary!" she shouted as the whole line froze. "Look at this place!"  
she said as she walked through the living room "And how dare you get  
everyone drunk!" "Erm hold this for a second Tenchi" he said shoving  
the last can of the six-pack into Tenchi's arms then pointing at him  
saying "he did it!". "Don't try to get out of it Gary, and you" she  
said pointing to Tenchi, Nobiyuki and Yosho "Should be ashamed of   
yourselves letting yourselves get so readily drunk like that" "We're  
sorry Ms Aieka" they all said heads bowed. "Now clear up this mess  
and go to bed, its half past one in the morning!" "Yes ma'aam" they  
all said.  
  
Aieka went up to bed and waited for Gary to arrive. An hour passed  
and still no Gary. "Where is he?" she thought as she got out of bed  
and walked back down stairs. "I'll see Washu to find out what   
happened to him," she said as she opened the door to find Washu and  
Gary again swigging Guinness and watching the match on the big   
screen.  
  
"Gary!" she shrieked.  
  
******************  
  
"Elementary my dear Watson" he said as he read the book held above  
him, unable to move as he was taped, tied, locked and stapled into  
his sleeping bag "Erm Aieka these bonds do chafe slightly, reckon  
you could let me out so I could go downstairs and.." "NO!" glared  
Aieka. "You mad at me?" "Whatever gave you that idea" grumbled  
Aieka to herself "Gary your obsession with Football has to." she   
sighed. Too late, the effects of Alcohol had taken Gary into the land  
of nod and he was sleeping like a baby. "Oh well he looks cute when  
asleep" she smiled to herself as she walked out of Gary's bedroom  
to join Sassami.  
  
  
Sassami was sleeping happily like she usually did, the Japanese  
wing of the Arsenal Supporters club downstairs did nothing to disturb  
her from her slumber. Suddenly, she started to disappear, though  
she was asleep to notice it. She fully vanished just as Aieka opened  
the door. Seeing she wasn't in her bed, she must've had a bad dream  
and slept with Tenchi she thought as she cosied up in her bed.  
  
Meanwhile in the other room, Gary tied up snored peacefully,  
probably thinking of Rugby or something or home. He started to   
disappear as well, though it took twice as long than it did Sassami  
he disappeared as well.  
  
*****************  
  
The next morning brought the male element of the Misaki household  
out very late and typically sick with headaches. Everyone except  
Gary. Aieka moved down the stairs.  
  
"Tenchi did Sassami sleep in your room last night" Aieka asked Tenchi  
as she came into the Kitchen. "No she didn't" he said hand rubbing  
his head "man how much alcohol was in that Guinness?" "Enough to make  
yourself a fool in front of the girls, really trying to cover   
Mihoshi's face in shaving cream then putting a mirror in front of her  
face" said Aieka with crossed arms. "No that was me" Nobiyuki said  
putting his hand up. "And me" Ryoko said, looking outside as she eat  
breakfast. "Well anyway that wasn't the best thing to do as she tried  
to report her self to the town dog pound as a stray with Rabies!"  
frowned Aieka. "How was I to know she'd take it so seriously"  
Ryoko grinned evilly.  
  
Aieka looked around "Where's Sassami?" "Haven't seen her around"  
said Ryoko. Everyone was in agreement "What about Gary" "Oh he's tied  
up in.." she froze at her words and rushed back upstairs.  
  
"Oh Gary! I'm so...huh?" she blinked as she saw Gary's Sleeping  
bag, still full as if it was filled with a human body.  
  
Meanwhile speaking of Gary, he was waking up, his vision hazy and   
hearing a little girl's voice screeching in his ear. "Uh bugger off  
dammit, I'll get your ball tomorrow" he mumbled as he snored. "Gary  
wake up! We're trapped!" screamed Sassami into his ear. "What!"  
he said waking up and trying to move but realizing that he was still  
in his sleeping bag, still with all the rope, sticky tape, staples  
and chains attached. He rolled around to look at the situation.  
Cage, thick metallic bars, all around is a control room, yes a   
typical capture outfit. "Sassami" he said "in a pocket on the left  
side of the sleeping bag, there is a pen knife could you get it out  
please". "Sure" she said, getting it out "what should I do?" "Okay  
stab the knife into the bag at shoulder level of the bag, right a   
little bit deeper..ouch! Yeah far enough" he smiled as she jabbed  
him with the knife. "Now cut around the circumference of the bag,   
that's it, rip it off Ahh" he smiled as she cut around and pulled  
the top off, exposing his body and letting him get out and stretch.  
"Now what we do?" said Sassami as she looked around the circular  
cage. "Wait" he said laying down massaging his head "Whoever is   
holding us will have to see us soon so keep close to me okay" Sassami  
ran up and sat down next to him as he groaned through the hangover.  
  
"They're gone!" said Aieka, hit by a double header "Where?" "A ship  
passed overhead last night, must've taken Gary and Sassami with them"  
said Washu as she sipped tea. "What are we doing here!" she said   
jumping about "We must go and find them now!" Just as Aieka started  
to dash off Washu grabbed her leg causing her to fall on the floor.  
"Look I know Gary, he'll keep his cool, and I know that Sassami  
is safe in his hands" she smiled.  
  
Gary however was crying.  
  
"Nooooo!" he cried, "what do you mean we lost! we were 1-0 ahead"  
"Well while you were celebrating for 15 mins, Newcastle slipped  
2 past the keeper to make it 2-1" Sassami said, looking slightly  
worried. "Damn Bryan Robson!" he cursed "I'm gonna slip an old sock  
on his face when I get a chance"  
  
"I doubt it whoever he is" said a new voice.  
  
Gary turned to see a male figure in a cloak "Oh god not you!" he said  
smiling.  
  
"What do you mean, how could you know who I am?" worried the figure.  
  
"Tetsuo of the Union of Scrap merchants and cargo carriers, also a   
big player in the life form trade, slavery and the kidnapping  
of important people in the Galaxy".  
  
"Wha-wha how did you know that, the only people who know my identity  
are my mother, father and..." "And me Mr. Monk, now where's my   
Dim-e?" Gary Interrupted, looking right at the covered man. "You mean  
this?" Tetsuo said holding up his gloves "they seem a bit too   
technical to be simple pieces of clothing" "Yeah and you want to know  
how to start them up?" Gary grinned. "If that would be helpful before  
I ship you off to a far flung planet" Tetsuo nodded. "Right now with  
that seeing as I'm in boxer shorts right now, you've taken my   
trousers which have a button, I presume you have this button?"  
Tetsuo produced it. "Good" he smiled "now press it and it'll allow  
power to access the gloves" A bit to eager to get the piece of kit   
working, he stabbed at the button excitedly, only to see that the   
gloves had gone out of his arms and now were being worn by Gary.   
"Thank you" he smiled courteously as he cut a way through the bars  
"now please don't alert security" he said staring right at him,   
letting loose a bolt of energy to take out a motion sensor and camera  
behind him then another one to take out the door controls behind  
Tetsuo "allow me to Exercise how we Essex boys say goodbye" he   
laughed softly as he came right up against Tetsuo, shaking now. In an  
instant, Gary's forehead nutted Tetsuo right in the nose, knocking  
him to the ground, breaking his nose and rendering him unconscious.  
  
"Tit" he muttered as he wiped his face of bone fragments and blood  
"Come on Sassami, we're going down to the nearest planet to see if we  
can contact your sister" he smiled. "Yay!" cheered Sassami "Gary   
knocked out the naughty Slave trader!" she smiled to herself as she  
skipped with him into a waiting portal.  
  
*****************  
  
They appeared in the middle of a market square, everyone around the  
pair stopping to see just why a young man and a little girl just   
appeared out of nowhere. "Oops" Gary said as Sassami frowned at him.  
People (as most people would of they saw someone appear from nowhere)  
were running away, screaming as they went. The pair just stood there,  
watching the mayhem as what looked like the town police arrive.  
  
"What's happening here?" said one of the constables in a gruff voice  
as he looked at the pair. "WITCHES!" screamed one old woman as she   
ran past. "Hmm, don't see a problem here" the constable said   
nervously as he started to back away. "No you idiot!" said the other  
Constable behind him "Arrest them and get them out of the way before  
they're lynched! One of them is Jurain royal family!" "Oh right"  
he said "Okay you two, you're under arrest for disturbing the peace  
and being witches" he said grabbing the two and throwing them in the  
back of their vehicle.  
  
Later they were taken to the local palace of the Mayor and put before  
them.  
  
"Right what are you two doing here, a place where any Jurain is   
considered a witch and a criminal?" "Where exactly are we by the way  
sir" countered Gary. "Thanthos" he said with a smile. "Oh dear" said  
Sassami with a blank face. "What? Said Gary, "Home of the Thanthos  
arena games?" "The same" said the Mayor as he stared down at the two.  
"Damn!" he thought to himself "The people of Thanthos broke away from  
the control of Planet Jurai two millennia ago" "Mayor" said Gary with  
the respect the title deserved "we came down here by accident,  
I am her protector under the eyes of a foreign power. As we have no   
intention whatsoever to do harm to your people we respectfully  
request transport off the planet and be taken to the nearest Galaxy  
Police post" "Denied!" growled the Mayor "as you have now implicated  
your 'foreign power' in our hate of the Jurain people we will   
imprison you as well as 2nd Princess Sassami under our constitution,  
Sassami will be placed as an executive prisoner and you will be   
entered into the Thanthos arena games" Gary groaned while Sassami  
looked worried. "But" added the Mayor "if you win the games, you will  
go free and you may take your Princess with you, we will contact  
the Jurain government and..." "No! Don't do that!" said Gary urgently  
knowing what a diplomatic crisis this would cause if a Watcher was   
found with a captured Jurain Princess "Erm... the way that we contact  
the Jurai on matters concerning the safety of the Princesses  
or other Royal family members has changed, as of last year we now   
contact the nearest place where members of the Jurain civil service  
or other important members which concern the Princess's safety.  
Right now the nearest place is planet Earth" "Earth?" said the Mayor  
"That's out of bounds to everyone, the people on that planet are too  
volatile to even communicate with!" "Well Erm...err" he thought  
hard for a second "we have important people on the planet including  
a high ranking Galaxy Police official who is also in charge of the   
2nd Princesses safety". "Very well, now you and the Princess will be  
split up so you can prepare for the games" "Gary!" Sassami said,   
horrified that she'd be split up "No!" "Sassami I can't do anything  
or they'll kill you, be strong and brave, Gary'll be back to pick you  
up in a weeks time" he said smiling. He turned back to the Mayor.  
"I demand that you treat 2nd Princess Sassami as a VIP and not be   
harmed in any way physically or mentally, I also demand that she live  
in comfort while I am gone" "As you are so confident I will agree  
to your 'requests' however, the minute you die, she will be put on   
trial as will the rest of the Royal family eventually for crimes  
against the Thanthosian people" Sassami gasped at this. Gary raised  
an eyebrow "She's a child for Christ sake! She wasn't even born   
during the insurrection!" "No arguments" said the Mayor sternly  
"Guards! Escort the new fighter out of here and to the arena, take  
the Princess to the guest wing of my palace where she will stay for  
the week" "Gary!" cried Sassami, as she was carried away "Don't leave  
me!" "Just keep calm, Gary'll get you out!" shouted back Gary as he   
was dragged away.  
  
**************  
  
"Arrested!" shouted Aieka "on what charge you rebel cur?" "For crimes  
against our people Princess" smiled the Mayor "I have instructed  
however to release her if you were to enter and win the Thanthos  
arena games" "You terrorist scum haven't changed!" she said "Very  
well, however I want your word that she will be treated as well as   
can be possible" The mayor smiled "You still flatter me Princess  
Aieka, very well I will expect you in two days for the beginning  
of the Games, out" the screen went blank.  
  
"They only want to try and execute me with my sister" she said to   
Tenchi and co "They'll put me through the games and then if I'm still  
alive they'll kill me anyway!" she said looking down at the table.  
"What are the games anyway?" asked Tenchi. "They are set of fights  
where some of the most talented fighters in the galaxy come to do   
battle to the death. Aieka will be their celebrity star" said Ryoko  
as she drank some water. "We can't let you go out there on your own!"  
said Washu, as she looked at Aieka "we need to go too, and get   
Sassami out and see where the hell Gary's got to" "Good then, while  
Aieka goes along with the script and takes part in the games, me   
Ryoko and Washu will search for Sassami and get her out then return  
for Aieka" smiled Tenchi "Easy" his smile turned to a nervous laugh  
as everyone else didn't exactly share his optimism.  
  
**************  
  
The two days had passed for Gary quite quickly seeing as he was still  
recovering from his hangover, the cell was a typical one complete  
with damp on the walls, moss, iron barred open window and even the   
odd rat scuttling around to complete the atmosphere. Outside he could  
hear the crowds as they headed into the arena, built like...a roman  
amphitheater! The dream!  
  
The door opened and one of the burly guards that really he could take  
out in a second but couldn't because of Sassami's safety. He nodded;  
telling him it was his turn to start his round. As he exited the   
prisoner block, Aieka entered via the other entrance, leaving Tenchi,  
Ryoko and Washu to search around for Sassami and Gary. Aieka knew her  
round would be very soon, maybe after the first round had been   
finished, she thought as she sat in her holding cell, fully dressed  
in her battle clothing and face paint.  
  
Gary was pushed into the room that was final place before he went out  
into the main arena. He was shoved his Dim-e, told to choose heads  
or tails and then proceeded to lose the toss of the coin. He slipped  
the gloves on and tried to activate his sword, it formed easily.  
Shutting it off he waited for the doors to open. The tanoi was   
blaring out stuff to whip the crowd into frenzy as he activated  
his body suit. A portal started at his legs and went up all the way  
to his head, covering him with the black flexible material that he   
couldn't remember the name for.   
  
Anyway just as he finished changing the doors opened and he walked  
into the arena. Again near enough the same in his dream except his   
opponent up on the screen wasn't female, or was in anyway related  
to any Jurain family. Gary sighed with relief then smiled as he saw  
his entry was instead a Dajin warrior, maybe pretty big in his part  
of the galaxy but totally unknown. His face masked with his   
ceremonial war mask, which was black and blank. The rest of the   
clothes he wore were gray, tight and kept to his body. He had no hair  
and was just a little taller than he was.  
  
The referee waved and ran to the side, jumping over the wall. The   
Dajin made his power sword appear, a large, cutlass style of a   
weapon, made of electrified bone to make the impact and cutting  
power much bigger. Gary made his Energy sword appear and waited.  
The Dajin ran forward, swinging the sword above his head, silent  
as he went. Gary preferred the two handed approach as his enemy came  
closer, then moving in to preempt the Dajin's attack, making him go   
on the defensive with an inward thrust.   
  
The Dajin managed to block, giving Gary the excuse to slash forward,  
working faster and faster, keeping the Dajin on the defensive  
while making sure that he didn't expose himself. After allot of   
swordplay, the Dajin jumped back then as Gary moved forward, jumped  
up sending a foot to his left cheek. Gary flew backwards. Cursing  
his error he saw enough of the Power Sword sweeping down to roll to   
the side, blocking with his energy sword. The Dajin continued  
with the attack, sensing victory he strikes down again, only to be   
blocked by Gary's energy sword.   
  
Gary then swung his legs round, sweeping the Dajin's feet from him,  
using the time to get back up and strike down with his Energy sword.  
The Dajin blocked desperately and a battle of strength ensued, with  
Gary pressing down, using a hand to pin the Dajin's sword arm then  
finally finishing him with a stab to the center of the head,   
disabling the main life support function of the brain and killing  
the Dajin in a painless, instant death.   
  
The crowd roared as Gary got up and breathed deeply, switching  
off his Dim-e, he looked up into the sky "First bloke I've killed,  
ever" he said as he brushed off his suit and went to the fighter's  
exit to rejoin the guards for the trek back to the cell.  
  
****************  
  
"Have you seen this Girl?" asked Tenchi sweetly to one of the many  
market traders only to see the photo of Sassami spat on. "Scum! if   
had got her hands on her she'd be hanging from that lamppost"  
the trader said with anger. "What!" said Ryoko "you little" a hand  
went over her mouth. "Ryoko we'll be lynched if you stand for Sassami  
in public here you idiot!" said Washu through her psychic link with  
Ryoko. "What you saw her?" Tenchi said. "Yeah I did, why whose   
asking?" the trader said suspiciously. "Ah err well the Thanthos  
secret service!" he said quickly flashing his wallet that held his   
bus pass that also looked surprisingly like a law enforcement  
card "Agent Tenchi, erm and my associates we're err kinda on the   
trail of the rouge Princess when she disappeared here, we would be   
umm very grateful if you tell us what happened" "Oh!" the trader  
laughed, "well the police took her away" "Do you know where?" Tenchi  
said, taking those Colombo episodes to heart. "The police station  
of course, now can I get on with selling please Agents" said the   
trader, agitated. "Oh sure thanks for your co-operation and all"   
smiled Tenchi as he walked off with Ryoko and Washu. "Hahahaha!"  
laughed Ryoko "you really thought that you were Colombo!" Washu was  
in hysterics as well. "You two can be so childish sometimes"  
frowned Tenchi as he walked.  
  
***************  
  
Aieka waited in the ready room, breathing deeply as this was really  
the first real one on one combat, one on one meaning it was her on   
her own without any help. She had won the toss and had chosen no   
weapon hand to hand combat, leaving the dagger fighting for the final  
if she ever did get to the final of course. "Gary where are you?"  
she said quietly as the doors opened and she walked into the arena,  
casually booed by the most of the crowd being obviously Jurian.  
  
Her opponent came to the roar of the crowd a tall man, bare with all  
but a cloth over his groin area; he towered over her and projected  
a dark blue aura. She just looked at him emotionless, trying to focus  
on the task ahead. She looked to referee and nodded, he waved and   
sprinted out of the ring.  
  
Aieka backed off, not really knowing what this man could do as he   
strode towards her. Then using her field as her means of propulsion  
she launched herself at him seeing what he'd do. He managed to dodge,  
her field catching his chest, knocking him a bit, she turned to see  
her work, only to see a projection of him disappear, the real one   
however was behind her and picked her up by the back of neck, choking  
her, seeing her face about to be slammed into the floor, probably  
knocking her unconscious if it did she swung herself round, placing  
a powerful foot right into his teeth, he threw her to the ground  
as he grasped his mouth, blood pouring.   
  
Aieka taking advantage left forward, again trying to spear him,   
hearing him groan as she smacked into his rib cage was most   
satisfying, seeing the knee flying into her neck though wasn't,  
she fell to her knees choking as she saw another foot swing round  
to her head, she ducked back, the foot missing by inches, she jumped  
up and did a high to his already damaged rib area. He staggered  
back in pain as she staggered off in pain.   
  
The tall man ran up behind her and picked her up in a bear hug, she  
cried out in pain, having breathing trouble from the knee to her   
neck. He piled on the pressure as she felt her spine in her body come  
under unbelievable pressure. Instinctively she threw her head back,  
hitting his squarely on the nose adding more blood to the already  
damaged face.   
  
He dropped her, giving her time to breath and get back on track.  
He was still reeling in pain and opened his eyes to see Aieka coming  
right at him with a flying kick, genuine hate in her eyes and facial  
expression. The force was like that of an express train, the foot   
breaking his ribs inwards, puncturing and killing internal organs  
and sending blood everywhere inside him.  
  
He dropped to his knees for a second then fell to the ground, blood  
emanating from a gash in his chest. Not a sound was heard from the   
entire arena as Aieka slowly walked up to him and brought the killing  
blow to his neck via kicking downwards. His body now lifeless from  
the blow that Aieka had brought upon him. The crowd was silent as she  
glared at nearly each and every one of them before returning to the  
guards at the exit and her cell.  
  
****************  
  
Gary stared at the wall, not really eating his food, if you could  
call it food. If they had a Chip shop round here he'd cry tears of   
joy. He laid back and looked at the ceiling "Man this place is   
corny!" he smiled as he looked at the near miss of the rip in the   
center of his stomach, he had just blocked with his sword in time.  
The previous fight must've been vicious, cries and screams galore!.  
He closed his eyes and waited for the next day, and the next fight,  
which knows maybe Aieka might just forgive him for losing Sassami  
for a week.  
  
Speaking of Sassami she laid on her bed in the luxurious Guest wing,  
she looked outside to see crowds screaming death and murder, with   
torches. It reminded her of a novel that Gary had read to her about  
France and the revolution. All those people having their heads off   
just because they happened to know a certain Duke or member of the   
royal family was sickening to her, yet it might happen to her by the  
end of the week.   
  
She lay on her bed after closing the curtains, trying to drown out   
the screams and the firing of suppression mauls used by the police  
to keep them back. Maybe if she made a disguise, found a way to hide  
her distinguishing marks on her face then maybe, just maybe she could  
sneak out, find Gary and escape. But out there was certain death by   
hanging if she was found out. Tears rolled down her face as she   
contemplated her execution once more, her maturity shining out again  
taking command of her childish innocence and naivety.  
  
Gary will win, he will come back for me and I won't be dead by Sunday  
afternoon.  
  
***************  
  
"Princess Sassami!" said the desk Sergeant at the police station  
to Tenchi. "Ahuh we were told she was here and.." "Haven't you heard?  
We've got all our officers down there keeping the vigilante squads  
from breaking into the Mayoral Palace and stabbing her to death!"  
if you want to go see I wouldn't recommend it as it isn't the best  
scene you want to see" "Uh thanks" said Tenchi, slightly disturbed  
about this planet, why did they want to kill any Jurain they saw and  
why did they insist on Aieka going to those games?  
  
***************  
  
The next couple of days it was raining, but it didn't stop the games,  
both Aieka and Gary throughout the week had fought themselves  
to the semi-finals, Aieka taking a force field punch head on and   
paying for it with stars and a broken jaw, quickly healed with   
today's quick fix medical technology after she had kicked and forced  
her opponent unconscious as repayment. Gary however had a worse time  
of it, now sporting a 6-inch long scar as a power staff had hit his  
sword arm.  
  
But still though, the pair amazingly hadn't met, been paired against  
each other or seen one another! But it seemed that fate had to bring  
the two together. It was to be the only time that the fighters  
who remained from the various tournaments would be able to exercise.  
  
Gary as usual was sitting there, staring into nothingness when   
suddenly he thought as he looked in a corner why there were about  
three or four guards crowding round, so he went over to investigate.  
As he got closer he overheard what they were saying.  
  
"How would you like to die, Hanged and cut up or beheaded just like  
your little sister!" one laughed. "What?" he thought, as he got   
closer and saw just whom they were pushing around. Slowly he saw the  
Jurain clothes then froze. She's here! Before any of the guards could  
torment her again he stepped in.  
  
"Erm mates" he said as he butted in "Maybe you guys could back off   
and do your job, I understand that this lady is very violent when   
agitated and has the power to beat you guys into nice little fruit  
pastels" he smiled. Aieka looked up and gasped at Gary, though highly  
covered by the black ops suit he wears she knew who was inside it the  
minute he spoke. The Guards stared back at him then nodded at him   
respectfully and walked off. Gary looked back down at her. "Well   
guess who picked the worse holiday destination of the year" he   
smiled. "What, how?" she said, still a bit surprised to see him here  
now. "I know, we landed here accidentally. After we got captured  
and sent to this slave ship. The local police took us to this mayor  
who promptly put Sassami on charges of treason, etc. And so here I   
am" he said, not really sure how she'd react to him readily admitting  
that he lost Sassami just like that. She just sat there feeling  
the temporary scars around her mouth. A tear rolled down her cheek.  
"We're going to kill each other," She said sadly. "I know but I know  
something will happen that will save us" he said rubbing her   
shoulder. Then he clicked his fingers "Hey how about you feign your  
death? I'll pick you up afterwards and then we'll rescue Sassami  
together" She shook her head "They incinerate the bodies as soon as   
they are out of view". "Oh" he said, "bugger". He turned to face   
Aieka "look I'll find a way out of this, where is Tenchi and co?"   
"They're looking for Sassami right now" she said "but I doubt that  
they found her, until then I have to win, though I'll die anyway,  
Sassami will live" "Wait a sec" Gary said a bit annoyed "I've entered  
this contest to save her, can't I forfeit or something in the final?"  
"Yes and they'll behead you" giggled Aieka darkly, a bit of black  
humor sneaking out of her quiet restrained character. "Hmm" Gary   
mockingly thought out loud "well I'd rather that we keep this cool,  
if they don't come by the start of the match tomorrow then I think  
we're on our own"  
  
The bell sounded calling the prisoners back to their cells, Gary got  
back up to have his arm grabbed by Aieka. He turned and hugged her   
strongly.  
"You'll be okay?" he said, concerned. "I'll be alright" she said   
smiling softly which changed back to that dark grin "don't think I'll  
go easy on you" "Ah! That's what you think" he laughed, as if they  
were going for a game of really competitive tennis or something.  
He smiled and she smiled back as he was grabbed by some agitated  
guards and dragged off to his cell.  
  
Later that morning the semi-finals began. Gary stood in the holding  
room and was thrown a metal pole. He smiled as he opened in the door.  
"Got a weapon I've never been trained for up against one of the best  
fighters in the Galaxy," he grinned nervously as he walked out into  
the arena "don't see a problem with that".  
  
His opponent was a small woman, dressed in a neon jump suit with   
light blue hair; she must've won the toss as she had a metal pole as  
well. She was smaller then he was though Gary had a feeling that she  
was extra-agile.  
  
As the referee ran for cover, the woman jumped right him, going for  
a blow right at the head, he blocked, exposing his belly to a   
hard-hitting boot, sending him sprawling backwards. She went forward,  
pushing her opponent down and tried to impale Gary with her pole,  
Gary quickly knocked the pole away before rolling away and getting  
back up.   
  
He felt the damage, "ouch! Bruised rib, hate those metal boots lady"  
he thought as he went in sidestepping the woman and using the metal  
pole as an extra long base bat.   
  
Then when she blocked (as he expected her to) he used her blocking  
action as a swinging pole, jumping up and sending a kick to the back  
of her head, knocking her forward. Then he put in a couple of cheap  
shots to her exposed head and back. Taking the damage with a couple  
of grunts she turned back and went for a stabbing thrust for his   
groin area, she missed just.  
  
He grinned as she missed but then shrieked as she slammed it back up,  
smacking into his groin with incredible force. Stunned he got a nice  
powerful punch to the cheek and another metal boot to the chest.  
  
Falling to the ground again he shook his head and flipped back again,  
feeling his groin and sighing with relief. Not too much time for   
that, he thought as she came back in. He ran forward to counter  
this, doing a kind of pole vault ending in a two footed kick right  
into her face. She fell to the ground, blood pouring from a wound  
and scratches all on her face.  
  
Not wanting to be ungentlemanly he waited for her to slowly get back  
up. Then smacked the pole into her stomach, then again. She fell back  
to her knees, head bowed down. He raised the pole and brought it down  
onto her neck, snapping the bone and her spinal cord in two, killing  
her instantly.  
  
He sighed and wiped blood away from a big couple of cuts on his face  
and felt his bruised ribs, wincing each time touched them as he   
walked back into the cell area.  
  
  
A Thanthos Mayoral guard stood by one of the many side entrances  
at the fence of the Mayoral palace. The light above him flickered,  
and then burnt out for a second. By the time it sputtered back into  
life.  
"Wow that was quick Ryoko," said Tenchi looking to see where she   
dumped the body. "Oh well I don't know my strength sometimes"  
she smiled evilly as the Guard she just threw into the air, fell down  
a couple of hundred meters behind her into the river.  
The building that they looked at was massive, the kind of grand   
palace that you'd associate with a mad despot or corrupt ruler (but  
one that had to skimp on Guards as they had run out of money building  
such a fancy Palace and all you see).  
  
"This must be the Guest wing of the Palace, Sassami is inside,   
probably in a room facing onto the square over to the left there"  
Washu said as she read a Holographic map suspended in front of her.  
"Is the place guarded?" asked Tenchi. "Of course, they're just dumb  
assed people they pulled off the street that's all" Washu grinned  
sadistically. "So it'll be easy," Ryoko said confidently. "Well that  
and we've got to get her out of a million strong mob of people   
wanting to string her up" Ryoko frowned "You stop saying that! You're  
making me feel sick!"  
"Okay okay jeez" Washu said as she scanned the corridors to see how  
many Guards there were around. "I just hope to get to Sassami in time  
before Aieka starts her final match" Tenchi urgently said.  
  
Sassami sat at the dressing table in a side room leading off from her  
bedroom, brushing her hair and making sure it was just right as her  
execution would be tomorrow afternoon and  
She had had no communication from Aieka, Tenchi or Gary.   
  
"They must've died trying to get me out," she said, nearly crying  
again as she remembered the good times of her (albeit short) life.  
Her pets, Ryo-Ohki, her pride of her cooking abilities and her bond  
with Tsunami, who at this time was powerless to stop this without  
causing all out war between Jurai and Thanthos, sacrificing  
millions, maybe billions of lives in the process. Another tear rolled  
down her cheek as she prepared for her execution.  
  
  
Aieka walked out into the arena, causing silence to the crowd as they  
stared at the Princess from Jurai who had defied them and stayed  
alive.  
  
Her opponent walked out, a plump man with a weird kind of suit on,   
wires trailed out of his head as a mask covered his face. The man,  
silent pointed at Aieka. Nothing else, he just pointed for a second  
then remained standing.  
  
The referee ran off and the match started. Aieka, unsure as to what  
she was up against, moved forward cautiously watching the man,   
standing and staring right at her. As she jumped up to do an aerial  
attack though, the man raised a hand and a ball of crackling energy  
appeared and flew right at her, enveloping her force field and   
superheating it, literally cooking Aieka alive inside it for a couple  
of seconds and sapping at her strength. She screamed out in pain,  
tears coming out of her eyes then instantly evaporating in the heat.   
  
She shut off the field and fell to the ground, groaning slightly  
as she recovered slowly, her whole body burnt slightly by the   
experience. The fat man simply walked up to her and shocked Aieka  
a couple of times, her body limply jumping at the bolts going into  
her.  
  
Having to think of something ASAP before he shut off her heart she   
took a risk grabbing at his legs then using her force field as   
momentum she swung round and round and round, gaining speed. He tried  
the same shock tactics again but the heat couldn't stop her now,   
despite the searing pain and shock to her system she threw him as   
hard as she could into the circular, perimeter, meter thick wall.  
A sickening crunch was heard as he slammed into it and it was obvious  
that he had been knocked unconscious by the affair.  
  
Aieka for her part, first collapsed, all her strength gone by the   
shocks and the swinging maneuver, then realizing that her opponent  
must die before the match ending she staggered to her feet, making  
shaky, labored steps towards the man, bleeding heavily from his head.  
Then an anger swept into her head as she took his neck and snapped  
it using her hands, fueled by her anger she picked up the body and   
threw it into the crowd screaming "There! See what your thirst for   
blood has done to this man!" before collapsing though pain and   
exhaustion.  
  
  
"Coast clear Tenchi?" asked Ryoko as she stood behind Tenchi as he   
peered round the corner in the corridor. Only two guards stood at the  
door, which held Sassami. Washu stepped forward. "I'll get in and   
explain what'll we'll do" smiled Washu as she skipped round the   
corner Tenchi watched his nerves on the rack as Washu calmly skipped  
up to the Guards.  
  
"Hey there mister" Washu smiled sweetly "I've been sent to accompany  
the traitor princess in her final hours" The Guards looked at each  
other. "Can I go in please" she said changing from being lovingly  
cute to sickingly cute (so cute in fact it could kill) The Guards  
smiled "Of course you can, five minutes though" "Oh thank you" Washu  
beamed as she skipped inside.  
  
Sassami's bedroom was like any other of the rooms in this palace,  
grossly overdone. Sassami was sleeping quietly; she looked as though  
she was crying. Washu walked over and nudged her. "Sassami" she   
whispered. Sassami slowly opened her eyes and looked into Washu's  
eyes. "Washu!" she shouted, "you came!" "Shhhhh!" cursed Washu "can  
it will ya!" Sassami, overcome with emotion grabbed Washu and hugged  
her tightly, crying uncontrollably "I'm so scared I thought I was   
going to die!" "There, there Sassami its okay now I'm here" Washu  
said rubbing her shoulder. "Where's Gary?" she said looking around  
"He promised he'd be back after the games" "What?" said Washu   
suddenly with shock in her eyes "Gary is in the Games?" "Yes, he was  
forced to and he said he'd pick me up tomorrow" "Do you know how far  
he's got so far?" said Washu, a sense of urgency in her voice now.  
"He won his Semi-final round" Sassami said with a smile "why is that  
good" "We don't know yet" Washu said looking for a safe escape route  
"We need to get out of here now, something terrible is going to   
happen.  
  
Washu opened the door to the corridor, the Guards were standing  
just ahead of her. She looked behind her to see a large solid silver  
candlestick. "lets see if I've learnt from Gary on this one" she   
thought as she opened a portal and sucked it in. The candlestick  
coming back out just on top of first guard. "Guard no1" she smiled  
as she brought the candlestick on his head, knocking him out. "And  
no2" she giggled as she swung it round, the stick hitting the other  
guard squarely in the eye, knocking him out. "Wow nice work Washu"  
said Sassami as she dragged the guards inside and locked them in the  
bathroom. "It's a trick I learned off Gary" she beamed "wait here and  
keep the door locked" Sassami nodded and closed the main door, Washu  
ran back to Tenchi and Ryoko.  
"She's gonna kill him!" "Who's going to kill who?" said Tenchi   
confused at Washu's babbling. Washu took a deep breath to calm down  
then said, "Gary managed to get into the games, and Aieka's got to   
the final" "That's good isn't it?" said Ryoko. "No Gary's in the   
final as well! And she'll kill him to save Sassami unless we get   
there first" "What!" Tenchi said in horror "she'll kill him?" "She  
cares more about her sister than anything else in the world, she'd  
even take a bullet heading for Sassami! And nothing, not even her   
love for Gary is going to get in her way" "We gotta get Sassami  
out of here then!" said Tenchi.  
  
  
By the next morning the instant recovery machine designed to get   
injured combatants back to full health had fully healed Aieka. Today  
was the day of the final and still not Tenchi, Ryoko and Washu! Will  
I have to kill Gary to save my Sister? She wondered, knowing that if  
Gary won, they'd be put in slavery for years anyway before they were  
released.  
  
She got out of the medic-bed and walked to get ready for the final.  
  
  
"Nice dark room" Gary thought to himself as he waited for the doors  
to open, knowing whom he'll be facing. Outside he could hear the   
bustle and hustle of a crowd, a big crowd, and then a foreign voice  
blabbed some words over a tanoi, the crowd cheered.  
  
Then out of nowhere a hidden side door was opened and Gary was shoved  
a sliver dagger and his Dim-e. "Port out and you die" a man,   
whispered in broken English into his ear. He nodded still knowing  
the tragedy that was about to unfold. Dammit Tenchi and co have to   
come sometime before either one of us has one these sticking out of   
us!  
  
The doors in front opened and he walked out into the arena. The   
screen up in the corner showed the statistics of him.   
  
"Oh look its me" he smiled as his saw his picture come up along with  
some unreadable writing. And then, what he was expecting came the   
photo of Aieka. And there was Aieka, up in her War costume and face  
paint, a look of anger on her face, rage and a darkness that he'd   
never seen before. For the first time her facial expression had   
suited her war getup.  
  
Then the person supposedly the referee waved to the two, starting  
the match. Gary was hesitant at first, knowing that what Ryoko could  
do physically, Aieka could do with the same amount of strength  
with the brick wall at light speed hitting power of her Shield   
especially now she was fighting for her sister's life. Aieka though  
only had one blade while Gary could call up another via his Dim-e.  
  
Aieka viewed Gary as she thought hard about his weaknesses,  
her mind totally focused on saving her sister. She was able to move  
about at high speed and use her force field to add power to punches  
but so could he if he tried. Then she realized what he had said the  
week before about him not being trained in certain arts, including  
how to handle a dagger properly. She had a plan.  
  
Aieka was on the move as she zoomed up to him, not right up to him   
but close enough for striking range. Gary not wanting to kill the   
woman he loved made his move, slashing his blade downwards to her   
sword arm as she swept in, hoping to cut and disable and therefore  
put her towards a possible submission. But Aieka ducked down and side  
swept at Gary's feet. Gary caught off guard fell on the ground,  
pain in his legs as she had applied her force field to her feet for  
maximum effect, his shins wouldn't recover from that for a while.  
  
Gary rolled, dodging the stabs of Aieka's blade, not really wanting  
to die at that moment in time he flipped himself up and jumped away.  
Aieka then came right at him at high speed, the yellow tint of her   
field showing as she tried to disable him with a body spear. Dodging  
with his reflexes from his training he sidestepped and grabbed onto  
her midsection, whirling her stomach round and into his waiting  
knee. Aieka gasped then groaned feebly. He dropped her to the ground  
and backed off waiting for her to get up.   
  
Aieka tried to breath, only to feel serious pain. She knew he'd be   
tough, but that tough? Nobody had caught her in mid air like that   
before let alone in one fluid motion!  
  
She got up, after checking herself off she nodded that she was ready,  
"all square" she muttered as she moved in quick now, engaging in   
blade to blade combat. Gary under serious pressure to match each move  
that she made, then he made his mistake by using both hands to block  
a low stab, leaving Aieka that split second window to choose which  
part of his body to punish for the mistake. Smiling to herself,  
She chose the face, the blow pushing him back, opening a wound from  
an earlier, he staggered back several steps, Aieka continued with a   
high kick which was countered by Gary only to have Aieka's other leg  
kick out Gary's already sore feet from under him, his head hitting  
the floor first.  
  
Aieka jumped on top of his back, ready to dive the blade into his   
skull, he could feel the whish of the air as the blade came down on   
his head. He closed his eyes and said. This was it she thought as she  
brought the blade down "forgive me Gary" she said solemnly. "No   
forgive me Aieka," he said as he brought his hands together above  
his head, catching the dagger and stopping it just millimeters  
from his skull.  
  
The strain was obvious as Aieka pushed down and Gary pushed up. Gary  
kicked Aieka in the back and bridged her off. Moving back he tried  
to regain his breath, Aieka though was not really into rest bites  
as she moved in again, both of them now without their daggers,  
jumping to spear him again, this time it worked as she slammed into  
his body with the speed and force of a truck, Gary only just seeing  
it, managed to bring up a shield in time, taking up most of the   
impact, though he was blown onto his back as Aieka landed on top and  
proceeded to throttle him, her hands cutting off air and choking  
him.  
  
"Aieka" he gurgled "please" "I must Gary" she said tears forming  
"I'm so sorry". "No!" he cried as he grabber her arms and did the   
thing that he never wanted to turn to, he discharged all energy   
stored in his Dim-e into their bodies.  
There was a dark blue flash and Aieka flew back screaming in agony.  
Gary's heart stopped and then started again as he got up, rubbing  
his neck. He looked at Aieka's body slumped in a heap, smoking.  
  
Aieka was lying on the floor. He had hurt her, so badly that she was  
on fire with rage, her eyes turned red for a second as the red mist  
took hold.  
  
"No" he said as he walked over, the tear rolled down his cheek. He   
bent down to see if she was still alive. The response was positive  
as a force field double fisted punch ripped into his chest, sending  
him up into the air. He landed oddly hearing a crack as his right  
arm fractured, his chest bleeding heavily as he tried to get up he   
saw Aieka standing above him, her eyes on fire.  
  
"Why won't you die" she said quietly, rage totally consuming her.   
"Because I love you Aieka" he grimaced in pain as he saw what she was  
about to do.  
  
He quickly limped away, trying to get as much distance as he could  
before she could attempt it. Too late, Aieka jumped up and then flew  
down both feet first, aiming for his head; the impact would kill him  
outright if there was anything left of his head. Gary was ready,  
he managed to do it once and he could do it again. He readied   
himself, formed a shield and grabbed onto her feet just as they came  
close. She gasped in horror, as he swung round once, using the   
momentum to throw her. Disorientated she hit the ground with   
tremendous force. A dull crack was heard as she smacked into the   
ground.  
  
She tried to get up but she must've broken one of her legs in the   
impact, blood pouring from an open wound but yet, like Gary,   
determination to win consumed them, she limped towards Gary who was  
standing there, now unable to use one arm. Then suddenly through  
loss of blood because of his chest wound he collapsed back onto his  
back, breathing labored. Aieka picked up a dagger and sat on him   
again and started to bring the Dagger down slowly. Gary took Aieka's  
other hand and held it. She was sobbing now. "I'm sorry Gary," she   
said as the tears rolled down. "Don't be," he gasped, "I gave it my   
best" "I love you," she said quietly. "Me too" he managed to force  
a smile. Aieka leant down to kiss Gary softly as she Dagger began  
to cut inside. It was only piercing the skin when Aieka heard up   
above a loud "Meow!" That was Ryo-ohki in ship form floating above  
the arena. Aieka looked up above and smiled weakly as she pulled  
the Dagger out and threw it away and they were teleported out of the  
arena.  
  
  
"Oh god Gary what have you done now!" said Washu as she hooked up a   
blood replacement vessel and bandaged the chest wound. "Yeah how come  
every time I see you after a big fight with someone you all always  
look as though you've had the crap kicked out of you" "Guess I've got  
good life insurance" Sassami was in the corner though, tears in her  
eyes as she looked at Gary "you hurt my sister" she said as Aieka  
lied on another makeshift bed, exhaustion knocking her out for the   
time being. "I had no choice Sassami please you have to understand"  
he said weakly. Sassami was distraught; she had seen the closing  
scenes of the fight. This he knew would mark her mind for the rest  
of her life. "Please Sassami, it wasn't intentional, I was fighting  
for my life out there," he pleaded "we were fighting for you" Sassami  
just looked away and sat down next to her sister.  
  
Tenchi was speechless, his face in abject horror at what the two had  
done to each other, and how they had both brought each other to an   
inch of their lives. He couldn't believe it, he just couldn't.  
He wouldn't and he couldn't.  
Ryoko however was steering but had seen Gary's injuries first hand  
and saw that this man could have every bone broken and still fight  
for what he believed in. He was a madman, but those who are trained  
killers usually are. She laughed at that, a trained killer who only  
just killed somebody this week.  
  
  
Later when they all got back and both had been treated for their   
injuries things got back to normal. That night Gary still bandaged  
because of the chest wound and his broken arm in plaster was looking  
up at the ceiling; he couldn't sleep, even though everybody including  
Washu was. He got out and decided to go get a glass of water and take  
some more painkillers.  
  
He walked down the stairs and saw Aieka outside looking at the lake.  
He walked outside to join her, first banging his plastered arm on the  
patio door causing some pain and distress, then finally figuring  
out how get out, he slotted himself through the open doorway.  
  
"Couldn't sleep as well?" he asked as Aieka looked behind her. Her   
leg was in plaster to heal the broken leg. A pair of Crutches was   
next to her. "Yes" she said, "I kept thinking about my rage that I   
experienced" he turned to face him. "I'm sorry, I should've waited  
for you instead of jumping to Sassami's defense like that" he said.  
"I nearly killed you Gary" managed Aieka, fighting back the tears  
as she realized what she had done a week ago. "Don't blame yourself,  
you were worried about your sister" he said. Aieka limped up to him  
and hugged him deeply "you said that love should never be fatal"  
biting her lip "that it should never damage body and soul" "What will  
happen when your father finds out about this, that a watcher assigned  
to look after you and your sister under interdimensional  
treaties, took you to within an inch of your life?" he said looking  
down. "I'll protect you," she said, finding strength in her voice.  
"I know my superiors have already seen my actions" he said holding  
Aieka tighter "I don't know what's going to happen to me" he stared  
into her eyes "for the first time since I was a child Aieka, I'm   
scared" "Me too, I'm scared of losing you," she said "You were very  
good" she said smiling trying to brighten him up "you were the only  
person ever to catch me in mid air at that speed". He grinned   
"reflexes, girl reflexes, when you said you were good at using the   
dagger though you weren't kidding!" "That was the first time I had   
tried it in 700 years!" she smiled "I was amazed you caught the   
Dagger before it went in your head" "That's the thing, if you got it  
flaunt it, that's exactly what you did" he smiled back "If looks   
could kill, you'd be an expert assassin" "Flattery will get you   
nowhere!" she giggled quietly. Gary laughed softly as well as they  
held hands watching the cloudless night and the moon's reflection  
on the lake's surface.  
  
From the patio doors Sassami was watching the pair. Why was she   
holding the hand of the person she tried to kill a week ago? Sassami  
had not talked to Gary all week because of the anger she had felt   
when she saw the fight. Gary was meant to protect her and Aieka with  
his life not hurt them!  
  
She walked out towards the pair, the patio door closing loudly   
startling Gary and Aieka as they turned to see the new arrival.  
  
"Sassami" said Aieka surprised "What are you doing up at this hour".  
Sassami said nothing, her face not in anger but in sadness. "You hurt  
my sister," she said quietly, looking away from Gary. Gary stood and  
knelt down in front of her "Sassami I didn't mean it, if I didn't  
fight back I would've been killed you can understand that" Sassami  
remained silent. "I know you might never forgive me and I might have  
to leave very soon but I'm very sorry for what has happened" he said  
looking at the ground "I love her deeply and would offer my life in   
place of hers" he looked up and smiled slightly "if you forgive  
me I'll show you how to cook some English dishes?" Sassami looked  
down at him out of the corner of her eyes. She looked over at Aieka  
who was nodding. Sassami put her small arms round Gary and hugged  
him, crying softly. "Go on let it all out," he said, patting her back  
"you forgive me?" Sassami looked up nodding tearfully "yes" she   
sniffed. "Want to cook up some 'toad in the hole'?" "Yes please"  
smiled Sassami as Gary wiped her tears away. Gary stood up and took  
Sassami's hand "You got any Yorkshire pudding mix and some large   
sausages?" "I have the sausages but you'll have to make the mix"   
beamed Sassami as they walked back into the house. "Good, I'll show  
you how to make it tomorrow, now lets get you back to bed and into  
the land of nod, maybe you'll have some special books for your   
birthday next week" "Yay!" Sassami.   
As they walked in Aieka smiled "he always has a way with her" she   
said to herself as she looked back out over the lake.  
  
  
McCann looked the observation reports on his desk, a former Watcher  
now Royal protection officer on loan by Operation Watchman nearly  
beaten and stabbed to death by the same person he was meant to be   
protecting.  
  
"Fair one" he thought as he flicked through the reports and the   
surveillance Photos, even reading the eyewitness testimony of the   
replacement Watcher who saw the whole incident "he always had that  
kind of impact with women".  
  
A light on the LCD screen embedded on this desk flashed. McCann   
tapped at the light saying  
"Yeah I'm a bit busy" "Sir we've been contacted by the Jurain   
representative they say they are still asking for confirmation  
to the rumors that 1st Princess of Jurai Aieka was nearly killed  
by one of her protection officers"  
McCann looked again at the papers, the close up photos of the wounds  
that both had suffered, then the photo of the Princess kissing Gary  
while proceeding to stab him in the chest. He sighed deeply as he   
tapped the intercom function on the desk.  
"Deny that they were even there in the first place. I want all   
records that the Thanthos Arena games even happened this year   
destroyed and I mean everything that even suggests that they were   
there"  
"Yes sir we'll organize a black ops team ASAP, what about the Jurain  
representative sir" "Leave him in the dark until you are 110% sure  
that the situation is secure" he said turning off the intercom.  
"I'll be dammed if I have one of my best men strung up for treason,"  
he muttered to himself as he dumped the file into the bin and lit a   
match.  
  
"Not on my patch".  
  
Fin  
  
I really wanted to go through with the fight between Gary and Aieka,  
though it may sound a bit morbid how it all came together. Trying  
to tie harmless comedy and dark violence is one of the biggest   
challenges and I feel that I've struck the right balance. Also it is  
one of my biggest single fanfics I've ever written! Anyway if you   
have ANY complaints, ideas, advice or pats on the back don't hesitate  
to e-mail me @ puddah@ntlworld.com. Once again I restate that I do   
not own Tenchi or any of the other original cast and I do not wish  
to be sued as I do not make any money out of this. Thank you  
  
  
  
  



	4. Pt.4

***This Fanfic is written without the permission of both Pioneer and AIC but I'm not   
selling it so please do not sue me. Actually what you can do Pioneer and AIC is reopen   
sales of Tenchi in the UK (you know how much it costs to get the stuff from   
America!!!!!!!) PLEASE!!!! ***  
  
No need for watching 4.  
  
The night was getting old on Thanthos, the locals staggered back from a long, hard night   
of drinking to their homes, in between the crowds of drunks a man walked in a long black   
cloak under which was a jet black jump suit, the suit of the Black ops. Walking through   
the crowd he moved to a side street.  
  
Checking that the coast was clear he tapped a small bead next to his ear. Looking round   
the corner back onto the main street he looked up the road he saw the massive Thanthos   
arena.  
  
"543, I'm 25 meters from target over" the man whispered.  
"212 we're moving to west wing, we'll be moving down your route in about 2 min" came   
the reply from 543, the leader.  
"BO 5 be advised Jurai representative will be arriving in planet's orbit within 15 minutes"   
said a new voice, the operator.  
"Copy that HQ," said the leader again.  
  
He waited a couple of seconds, acting out drunk, hurling into the gutter to any passers by.   
After about 5 minutes the communications net came back to life.  
  
"Presents have been delivered, withdrawing, repeat withdrawing 212, and be prepared for   
us over"  
"Roger, HQ this is 212, request exfil point to be activated at co-ordinates 21,34,21 over"  
"Co-ords noted and entered, Dark Horse has been notified ETA 5 mins" the operator   
replied.  
  
He looked down the road to see three individuals, dressed like him run up the road   
towards him.  
  
"Lets go, the shows going to start in 2 mins," hissed the leader of the group, black ops   
uniform now fully on him. 212 nodded and moved on with them.   
They ran up the alley to a quiet corner.  
"Right, check yourself first before you port out to the exfil point okay" said the leader as   
he opened the portal, shoving the youngest member in first then going up the age and   
experience order, ending up with himself.  
  
A minute after the leader had walked through the portal; there was colossal explosion   
lighting up the night for 30 seconds as the concentrated explosives practically demolished   
the Arena, destroying all evidence of what had happened with it.  
  
The area they had teleported to was a field in pitch darkness, all that could be seen was   
the red-lighted personnel cabin of the Dimensional transport, the crew chief waving with   
a flashlight for two seconds. All that could be heard was the scream of the engines as the   
group ran over to the transport and clambered aboard.  
  
The leader ripped off his mask, breathing deeply as the transport lifted off the ground.  
  
"Get a message to Commander McCann, target 1 is abolished" he shouted as the crew   
chief slammed the external door shut.  
  
  
  
  
"Aggg!" cried Gary as Ryoko tried to push him through a door, even though the plastered   
arm stuck out making ordinary ways of getting through doors impossible.  
"Dammit Gary common you're blocking the bathroom!" shouted Ryoko angrily.  
"Stop trying to break my arm all over again then and give me some time to get out!" said   
Gary quietly as Ryoko stopped shoving.  
  
"Gary a visitor outside for you!" shouted up Sassami.  
"I'll get round to it when Ryoko has stopped trying to rip me a new one!" shouted back   
Gary as he Glared at Ryoko.  
  
"Thank god Washu's taking it off today" Gary mumbled to himself as he went down the   
stairs.  
  
"Sassami where's Yosho and Nobiyuki?" Gary asked before he went to meet the visitor.  
"Oh they're out in Tokyo for some big donation to the Tokyo shrine, won't be back for   
three days".  
  
Gary put his shoes on and walked outside to see who the visitor was, he closed the door   
behind him as soon as he saw it was McCann.  
  
"Lets walk" McCann smiled.  
  
"You've been causing quite a lot of trouble back at HQ Gary," said McCann "Had to do   
some clearing up"  
"Oh so you got word of what happened at Thanthos?" grinned Gary sheepishly.  
"You got quite a girlfriend there, with tendencies to get off with you as she takes your   
life!" Laughed McCann "That and her father is at the head of one of the most powerful   
empires in the Universe that nearly went to war with our boys"  
"What?" said Gary bemused at the speed of events.  
"Well we got word of your appearance with the 2nd Princess on Thanthos, Jurai got in   
touch with us asking for confirmation, we stalled, then we got another message adding   
that the 1st Princess was on the planet as well, then in the same day we got photos from   
Watcher no.1732 of the last fight between you and Ayeka. A that point Gary, we were   
kinda beyond crisis point"  
"I could understand" nodded Gary.  
"As expected, Jurai got a hold of the rumors and demanded that we give them you for   
charges of treason. We stalled again saying that we still didn't have confirmation of those   
rumors, then we didn't have any choice"  
"What did you do?"  
"We couldn't lose you because you're vital to our plans for this dimension, that and   
Washu wouldn't forgive us" he laughed nervously looking up and around for something  
"She's sleeping" frowned Gary.  
"Oh" blinked McCann "anyway, so we sent a couple of Black ops squads to clear up the   
path from that ship you landed on to Thanthos where the Mayoral palace, Thanthos arena   
and Thanthos central records office holding all records of this years 'Activities' were   
suddenly blown to the ground by suspicious explosions"  
"So you saved my arse out there," laughed Gary.  
"Yep" nodded McCann "And when the Jurai got there, no records were left to back up   
any of the allegations against you so they dropped the charges" McCann stopped and   
faced Gary "And so now you're officially dead we can restart you as a Royal Protection   
Officer under the eyes of the Jurai"  
"Thanks Commander I'm proud to be back" Gary beamed as he shook McCann's hand   
warmly.  
"No problem, remember you owe me £50 for the F.A. cup semi-final bet" laughed   
McCann as he walked off.  
"Yeah sur-hey!" shouted Gary as McCann disappeared from view, seeing a massive   
transport plane rise up then fly through a waiting dimension portal. Gary sighed.  
  
"But I was going to spend all that on pay per view football* matches" moaned Gary as he   
trudged back to the house.  
  
  
  
"Hi Tenchi, Hi Ms. Ayeka" said Gary glumly as he slotted through the door. He trudged   
past the pair as they sat on the sofa in front of the TV.  
  
"What's wrong with?" said Ayeka as she watched Gary crawl up the stairs.  
"Last week during the Soccer match" Tenchi said with a smile "he made a bet on the   
phone with a friend of his for about 10000 Yen, guess he lost".  
"Oh Gary, he's so funny when he is like that" giggled Ayeka.  
"Yeah" Tenchi agreed, "You care for him though?"  
"Why of course I do Lord Tenchi, like I do for you"  
  
Gary came back down the stairs and slotted into Washu's room. He came back out about   
5 minutes later with his cast gone, rubbing his healed arm. He walked back upstairs.  
  
"But I thought you were after me?" said Tenchi puzzled  
Ayeka sighed "I was Lord Tenchi, and I still have feelings for you" she blushed at that   
"But when I thought of what would happen, the fact that if we ever married, you would   
have to get used to the tradition and the prejudices of the Court and above all my father.   
And I know that you would never like that at all Tenchi"  
"So what are you going to do with Gary?"  
"We are attracted to each other I know that but we are giving it time" she smiled then   
blushed "I shouldn't be telling you that!"  
  
Gary came down stairs with a cooking apron titled 'Rugby Players do it better'.   
"What are you doing wearing that!" giggled Ayeka as she looked at what he was wearing.  
"I'm gonna teach Sassami to cook some British dishes" he said in a heroic movie style   
voice "Come thee fair maiden and I shall take you to a culinary wonderland!"  
"Thank you Gary but I'll pass this time" she smiled softly, blushing a bit.  
"Oh well your loss" he beamed as he walked into the kitchen.  
  
  
"I don't get it," said Ryoko as she talked to Washu in her lab watching Gary leave with   
his cast off "he always sees this man in a suit every week!"  
  
"Yeah and he always gives him a big wooden box?" said Washu as she stared at the   
screen "Man this version of ICQ is so outdated!" she grumbled to herself.  
  
"Uhuh, why?" smiled Ryoko "do you know what's inside these boxes?"  
"Yeah, Guinness, Western Sake, those handy travel board games, Pringles, cheese and   
onion crisps, minidisks with some of his favorite music to accompany his Minidisk player   
that he got last week and bottles of Dr. Pepper"  
"That it?" blinked Ryoko "What kind of Sake he got?"  
"Famous Grouse and Jack Daniels whiskey why?"  
Ryoko's eyes beamed. She disappeared as she beamed to Gary's room.  
"Damn if this Windows 98 is meant to be a game then I hate it! I have to restart every   
half hour!"  
  
  
"Now you now know why its called 'toad in the hole' and how to make the special mix   
that makes it so crispy, the rest is really a simple matter of placing the mix with sausages   
into the oven and leaving there for hmmm about till its about ready" said Gary as he let   
Sassami place the tray into the oven.  
  
"What other dishes do you know?" said Sassami looking up.  
"Well, Battered fish and fried chips, erm sausage in batter, and even Battered mars bars!"   
"Yuk Mars bars!" laughed Sassami.  
"Yeah I know, tell you what Sassami, its Sunday tomorrow, how about we cook a special   
Sunday Roast?"  
"But we don't an animal to cook" said Sassami disappointingly.  
Gary then looked over at Ryo-ohki evilly "maybe we could…" Ryo-Oki gasped and ran   
off into the living room "nah".  
"Do you eat any of our food where you come from?" asked Sassami.  
"Yeah a couple of times, even had Sushi, though I'm more accustomed to Indian cooking"   
he clicked his fingers "Got it! Leave the eating instruments and the meat to me, you just   
make sure you can get carrots, cabbage, potatoes to roast and boil and some Swede and   
parsnip, can you get that here?"  
"Well I think so why?"  
"What meat do you want to eat tomorrow, New Zealand Lamb or Scottish Beef?" grinned   
Gary.  
"What about the toad in the hole?" asked Sassami?  
"We'll see how that turns out, it's our first try so I'm not really expecting much" he smiled   
lifting up Sassami onto his shoulders "all we're focusing on right now is to see what   
Vegetables we can get a hold of for tomorrow".  
  
  
"Wow so he knows all that about us?" said Tenchi in amazement "it's a wonder what they   
do with all that information".  
"He knows something about what'll happen to you in future but he can't say" nodded   
Ayeka.  
"Does he even know a lot Washu?" asked Gary.  
"Yes he does, they even met when she was thinking of making Ryoko" she smiled "they   
go back a long way"  
"I could see that, they get drunk nearly every night!" laughed Tenchi.  
"They also play this game called Counter-Strike, most strange" Ayeka smiled.  
"So that's why Gary wakes up at midday!" joked Tenchi.  
Ayeka giggled quietly "The funniest thing is though, he's my protector and nothing else,   
but he acts nothing like his role describes him to be".  
  
  
"Aww damn!" cursed Gary as he plonked the tray which held the burning Toad in the   
hole onto a heat proof tray before opening a window next to it to let it cool "We burnt   
it!"  
"That's a pity," said Sassami as she put the list of vegetables to cook in her pocket.  
"Good thing I paid for it!" Gary said to himself "oh well I'll wash this and go to my room   
for some reading, you may as well work your cooking magic" he smiled as he went over   
to the sink to put the baking tin in to soak.  
"Sure thing, I will give you a shout when ready" beamed Sassami.  
  
After he did the washing up he walked over to the telephone in the hall, on his way he   
looked over his shoulder a couple of times, thinking there was a shadow following him.   
After reassuring himself he picked up the phone and dialed his number.  
  
"Hey Jim its Gaz, yeah you know you owe me and boys at HQ some meat right, well I   
wanna call in the favor. Yep if you could drop it off at security and tell them to give it to   
Commander McCann saying Gary sent it, and he'll send it to me" he said down the phone   
line "Ah cheers mate you're a lifesaver, seeya mate bye" he put the phone went into his   
room. He looked at the wooden crate.  
  
"Ah you beut!" he said to himself as he opened the crate up and pulled out the minidisk   
collection.  
His head though took an unnecessary trip to the ceiling however when he jumped 5 feet   
into the air when Ryoko behind him said "hi there!"  
  
"Ouch!" he moaned, now on the floor "Wha-what you doing here"  
"Just popping in to see my favorite Englishman" she said walking over to the crate "Well   
what do we have here"  
"Erm, oh bugger!" he said quietly as he looked up at her, dressed in her usual seductive   
style and weirdly holding 2 shot glasses "fancy a drink" she said with a perfect smile.  
Gary just looked up "oh well can't hoard it when you've got a person who can phase   
through objects".  
  
  
"Dinner is ready!" shouted Sassami as she laid the table with today's delectable food.  
"Where's Gary?" said Tenchi as he got up.  
"Probably up in his room" Ayeka said "I'll go get him"  
  
Ayeka walked up the stairs "he must be working on a surprise, he's drifted in and out all   
day" she smiled to herself as she knocked on the door.  
  
"Gary dinner is ready a…" Ayeka stopped as she saw Gary asleep on the floor with   
Ryoko asleep on top of him.  
"Aggg!" she shouted, "I knew it! Not satisfied with trying to get between me and Tenchi   
huh but Gary as well!" she ran over, grabbed Ryoko by the collar and started shaking her   
violently.  
"H-h-hey!" Ryoko jumped as she was shook "w-wha-wha-whats the big idea"  
"I can't believe you could do this!" shouted Ayeka as she shook Ryoko harder.  
  
All this commotion woke Gary up he saw Ryoko being shaken quite comically by Ayeka   
and shouted down stairs sleepily:  
  
"Tenchi is there a reason why two beautiful women should be fighting in my room"  
  
  
After Tenchi and Gary had split the two up and Ryoko had explained why she was in   
Gary's room with him everything was kind of calm. Although there was a bit of tension at   
dinner, Gary saying nothing, focusing on the dinner. Ayeka glared at Ryoko from time to   
time. Tenchi and Sassami just shrugged.  
  
Later Gary was teaching Sassami how to read English when a portal opened next to his   
head.  
  
"Special delivery" chimed a computer from the portal.  
Gary turned and put an arm into the portal taking out a large, frozen leg of lamb.  
"Wow you can do that!" laughed Sassami as she looked up.  
"Yeah, got some special favors back home, now lets put this in the sink to defrost for the   
night naturally, keep it in its shrink wrapping for the moment so it won't go bad".  
" I wish I could use that glove, I'd be extra careful with it" said Sassami with pleading   
eyes.  
"Well I can't let you have it for long, but I'll teach you how to use it"  
"yay!" said Sassami as he picked her up and they walked outside.  
  
"Now you've got it on it should adjust to the owners hand measurements" he said as the   
glove shrunk and tightened round Sassami's hand.  
"Now sweep your hand in front of your face hand horizontally flat in front of you"   
Sassami did it with the grace of the Princess.  
"Now watch" he smiled as he picked up a big rock.  
"Er Gary are you sure?" said Sassami taking a step back.  
"Yep stay still" he grinned as he threw the rock as hard as he could. Sassami cringed as   
the rock was thrown at her, but didn't feel the impact as she saw a dull, dark blue flash in   
front of her as the rock bounced off the shield that she had put up.  
"There you go the first basic, self defense. One sweep to the left over one of the three of   
the body areas, front body, back and head. Then one sweep to the right to deactivate it."  
Sassami sighed relief as Gary continued.  
"Now this baby can take near enough anything, but it only stops the actual damage that   
the blow would deal to you not the force and so if lets say you were hit by a train, you   
wouldn't actually take the damage of the head on impact but you'd still fly back by the   
force of the impact" explained Gary as he threw a succession of rocks and other large   
objects at Sassami's shield.  
After the shield was turned off, Gary went on to the next part.  
  
"Teleportation" Gary said as Sassami's eyes lit up.  
"Right lets teleport you to that point over there" he pointed to a big tree on the other side   
of the lake "To activate the startup sequence, ball up your summoning hand then thrust it   
forward".  
Sassami did this and the Dim-e lit up.  
"Now using your fingers on both hands display these numbers: 4,9,4,1,1,7"  
Sassami did this in rapid succession and a portal opened up in front of her. Gary walked   
over a poked his head inside, then said "go on its safe".  
Sassami walked through it and appeared on the other side of the lake.  
"Wopee!" she shouted from her side of the lake.  
"Right walk back through the portal" shouted Gary.  
  
Sassami appeared back next to Gary.   
  
"This is so cool" giggled Sassami.  
"Hey maybe you'll need this sometime, even to save any one of us" said Gary as he   
looked down.   
  
Sassami smiled nervously as he pressed his recall button and the Dim-e reappeared on his   
hands.  
"Lets get some sleep, we've got a lot of work to do tomorrow" Sassami smiled as she   
walked back inside.  
"Yeah sure, goodnight Sassami" replied Gary.  
  
  
The next day started with Gary and Sassami running down stairs to check on the Leg of   
Lamb. Perfectly defrosted. Gary suggested that Sassami should get some herbs, cut them   
up and stick them in various parts of the Lamb. After that Gary left to do his daily chores.  
  
Ayeka got up and wandered around for a bit, seeing that Gary was already out doing   
chores and Sassami was busy cooking something she decided to go do her chores. Ryoko   
however was up to more sinister stuff.  
  
"Huh?" she said as she picked up the Minidisk player "He listens to this!" she said as she   
threw it behind her onto the bed (thankfully) as she searched the wooden box. "Ugh" she   
though as she saw several six packs of Guinness "aha!" she smiled as she saw the   
Whiskey at the bottom reaching down she heard the door open. Quickly disappearing into   
her sleeping place in the rafters of the house. Gary stepped in with a dust buster.  
  
"Heh I guess Ryoko likes whiskey" he smiled as he started to tidy his room.  
  
  
  
Washu was in her Lab "At last!" she shouted at the top of her voice as she raised an   
object into the air "the answer for the greatest question of the universe: How do you set a   
VCR!" she said as she pressed a button on the object in her hand. Then on the small TV   
screen with a VCR unit under it came a message.  
"Time for program at 18:00 set"  
  
"Yes!" shouted Washu triumphantly as she leapt into the air "Now to mass produce this   
device and sell it to the world for tons of cash!" she laughed as she turned around.   
Straight into the face of Mihoshi.  
  
"Hi" she smiled blankly "Whatcha doing?"  
"Di di! Erm I..I mean Mihoshi!" Washu said as she gasped in surprise "How did you get   
in here?"  
"By the front door stupid" she grinned as she bent down "wow what's that you got"   
"Nothing, you don't wanna see this-hey!" Washu said, annoyed as Mihoshi grabbed the   
remote from her child hands.  
"Wow wee!" Mihoshi shirked dumbfounded "What does this button do!" she said quietly,   
looking at the only other button on the remote, a big red button with warning stickers all   
around it"  
As soon as Washu saw what Mihoshi was about to she tried to jump up to grab the   
remote away from Mihoshi, but was in vain.  
"No! You'll kill us-"  
  
  
"Did you hear that?" asked Tenchi as he brought in the last of the vegetables that Sassami   
wanted.  
"No what was it that you heard?" Asked Sassami as she chopped up carrots and slipped   
them in a saucepan of boiling water.   
"A dull thud" shrugged Tenchi "Must've been nothing" he looked at the wide range of   
food available "wow what's all this?"  
"It's a surprise, me and Gary are organizing it" smiled Sassami as she finished chopping   
up the carrots and then starting with the Swede "Roast leg of Lamb with roast potatoes   
and vegetables"  
"That's going to surprise Ayeka and Ryoko" nodded Tenchi as he looked through the   
oven window "I don't think they've even heard of roast lamb"  
"Don't worry," giggled Sassami "they'll be okay". She thought for a second "where is   
Ryoko? I haven't seen her all day"  
  
  
Gary finished packing away all his stuff back in his box.  
  
"Right, I've sorted out my chores, all I have to do is…." He stopped for a second, as he   
smelt sawdust, picking up the box a bit saw a hole being sawed from below. He grinned   
evilly for a second as he cast a portal over the hole, almost certain who was going to pop   
her head up  
  
Meanwhile in the Houses of Parliament, Great Britain.  
  
"Now Mr. Blair is the weakest link goodbye!" shouted William Hague, the opposition   
leader to the roar of his party around him. He then sat down on the opposition side of the   
house as Tony Blair stood up to make a response (That's all that really happens in the   
British parliament, name calling, taunting and the like).  
  
"Mr. Speaker this man is an imbecile for quoting a well known BBC quiz show phase   
well after I had done it myself-" he didn't finish his sentence as a head popped up from   
the dispatch box where he put all his Reponses to questions on. Everyone gasped as a   
head of a very beautiful, golden-eyed girl with cyan spiked hair looked around.  
  
"Erm anyone got Whiskey?"  
  
Mr. Blair, nearly wetting himself he was so scared was rugby tackled by about twenty   
armed policemen and special branch as they screamed "Intruder! Save the Prime   
Minister!" as the rest of the house (about 500 MPs) looked on, bemused then roared in   
laughter as the girl, clearly harmless froze, looked around and ducked back down.  
  
When she ducked back out and looked around again to see she was back home she sighed   
a breath of relief, the portal closed to see Gary on the floor in hysterics.  
  
"Dammit!" she cursed, "that was you wasn't it!"   
"Y-yeah!" he managed, nearly crying he was laughing so hard "K-Keep away from m-my   
Sake!" he said in hysterical laughter. Ryoko fumed and floated downstairs.  
  
Gary after recovering ran downstairs to join Sassami   
  
"how's it going?"  
"Great!" beamed Sassami, this dinner the pinnacle of her cooking career "the Lamb is   
cooking nicely, all the vegetables are now cooking and I've started on the gravy, should   
be all ready in about 30 mins"  
"Good I'll get the table ready then" nodded Gary "Sure you'll okay here?"  
"Yes, I am of course the best cook in the house!" boasted Sassami.  
Gary smiled as he walked out; he started to make the simple dinner table into one that   
would be worthy of being used by the Queen herself. First putting the under sheet on the   
table, then the table cloth over that, then each table mat with coaster for drinks.   
  
Then the plates, the knives and forks (as they were only going to have the main course   
first only one pair were needed). Then after that the special trays for the vegetables were   
laid out with serving spoons next to them. All that was needed now were the napkins, the   
wine tray, the plates (being heated in the microwave) and the food. He smiled to himself   
  
"Haven't done this for years" said nostalgically as he sharpened up the carving knife.  
  
Just as he started to do that there was a crash as Washu's door under the stairs, out of   
which crawled Mihoshi, covered in filth from head to toe. An extremely annoyed Washu   
followed her.  
  
"Hey Washu, how nice of us to join us, maybe you two should take a bath"  
"I'll kill her" was all she said in between breaths of anger "I'll…kill…her"  
Gary raised an eyebrow "who she talking about Mihoshi?"   
"Erm…I don't know" lied Mihoshi unconvincingly.  
  
  
"Dinner's ready!" shouted Sassami. Everyone filled into the Dining room and to   
everybody's surprise it was fully laden with plates, with specially folded napkins on top,   
special silver cutlery, several trays with carrots, cabbage, parsnip and Swede. There was   
also a shiny tray with red wine, water and the sparkling blackcurrant stuff that you can   
get. A shining silver gravy boat sat in its own special holder and at the top of the table   
was Gary at the top with Carving knife and a nicely cooked and large piece of meat on a   
large plate.  
  
"What's happening here" asked Ryoko as she sat down looking up and down the table?   
"Its our surprise silly" giggled Sassami, she was sitting near Gary at the top.  
"What is for dinner exactly?" asked Ayeka, looking at some of the more 'exotic' of the   
vegetables.  
"A traditional British roast dinner, Leg of Lamb, cooked to perfection I might add by our   
master chef here Sassami"  
Sassami bowed sheepishly to the clapping of everyone.  
"But how did you get any of this without leaving the house?" Ayeka wondered as she sat   
down.  
"Well I pulled a couple of favors in and got the meat, cutlery and stuff in last night" he   
smiled over to Tenchi "I thought, as you people have given me such a nice reception over   
the last couple of weeks I thought this would be a great way to repay your hospitality"  
"Well thanks, you and Sassami must've done a lot to get this ready in time" smiled   
Tenchi "Now lets get it served before it gets cold".  
  
So they had dinner, they enjoyed it, Ryoko, Washu and Gary got severely drunk after   
much nagging, he finally brought a bottle of his prized whiskey down and Ayeka enjoyed   
her first taste of British cooking. Sassami was acknowledged as probably the best cook   
ever known (even better than Jamie Oliver the 'naked' chef) and was promptly rewarded   
with a new book that Gary had got in his box. Mihoshi just sat there, trying to figure out   
why the vegetable called Swede didn't come from Sweden. But that problem like the   
dilemma over why toy cows which while they bore an amazing physical size resemblance   
to cows far on the horizon, were totally different altogether. Despite Tenchi's best   
attempts to enlighten her, Mihoshi was no nearer to solving the problem.  
  
  
Later on in the night when Ryoko chased Tenchi off into a quiet corner, Washu had kind   
of fallen asleep on top of Mihoshi on the settee and Gary had gone off to get some water   
for himself, Ayeka and Sassami walked out into the garden to watch the night.  
  
"Did you like your dinner?" asked Sassami as she looked up at her sister, the only other   
person in the house who was still sober.  
Ayeka smiled warmly "Of course I did dear sister, do you like your book?"  
Sassami nodded "Do I! This will help me learn English" She hugged her elder sister   
softly "Will Gary stay?" she said looking up at Ayeka.  
Ayeka thought about this then looked down "I haven't thought about that I don't know"   
She said as she looked through the kitchen window and saw Gary swallow large   
quantities of water then returning to the living room "I don't know" she said again.  
"I don't want him to leave" Sassami said as she looked up at her sister "he's like an uncle   
to me"  
Ayeka looked down and smiled "He's a Royal Protection Officer now, in charge of our   
safety beyond the realms and responsibilities of Azeka and Kamidaki, if he leaves, it'll   
only be for a short time for say a holiday to spend time with his family"  
Sassami nodded happily and said, "You'll promise he'll stay?"  
"I promise"  
"Yay!" Sassami said as she hugged Ayeka tightly.  
Ayeka giggled to herself as Gary watched from the patio doors.  
"Gary" Ayeka smiled as Gary walked out, the water and anti-drunkenness pills taking   
hold on the alcohol on his body.  
"Yes" he smiled as he sat down next to the two sisters, ruffling Sassami's hair playfully.  
"I wish to thank you for your efforts in making a lovely dinner, I enjoyed it very much"   
said Ayeka warmly.  
"Hey, Sassami made the dinner, I just got the ingredients and laid the table" said Gary   
sheepishly.  
"You way you laid the table out was well planned out, you must have a lot of experience"   
Sassami said as she quirked her head.  
"Well when you're studying in a university in London, Waiter is one of the many jobs   
you can do to get extra money" smirked Gary as he looked up at Ayeka.   
Ayeka nodded and looked down at her sister "Sassami dear, its time for bed, say   
goodnight to Uncle Gary"  
Sassami giggled quietly to herself and kissed Gary lightly on the cheek before skipping   
off into the house.  
  
"Ah Sassami" he grinned "I know you love me but I am too old" he joked "and have my   
heart set on another woman" he laughed as he picked Ayeka up and sat down.  
"Gary you shouldn't do that, it is so forward" laughed Ayeka.  
"What?" sniggered Gary "I am not a man of 'those' morals".  
Ayeka smiled and hugged Gary lightly, Gary hugged back.  
"Are you going to leave?" Ayeka said, breaking the silence. Gary's smile faded away as   
he sighed.  
"What is it?" Ayeka said, her smile fading as well.  
"Ayeka" he paused as his eyes looked away "I might leave right now if my superiors   
wanted me to. I have no idea what will happen, maybe I will visit my parents back ho.."   
he stopped for a second as he looked back into those deep, dark red eyes..  
"You're not going to leave us are you?" she said urgently.  
"You're eyes" he murmured, "I've never noticed before"  
"You haven't?" Ayeka said softly, surprised.  
"They remind me of poppies" Smiled Gary softly as he held Ayeka's hands.  
"What are they?"  
"It's a small, crimson red flower that grows on recently disturbed soil"  
Sassami looked out of the patio doors at the couple.   
Ayeka hugged Gary.  
"The poppy reminds me of you and your eyes, the Ayeka I love. Beautiful, calm and   
peaceful"  
Ayeka held Gary even tighter.  
"I won't be going anywhere Ayeka, not right now anyway"  
Ayeka smiled softly as she looked up at him "Washu showed me a photo of you in a   
western dinner suit with bow tie and tails" she giggled quietly "you looked good"  
Suddenly Gary perked up "You think so?" he smiled as he got up, still carrying Ayeka.   
"Yes I thought you looked very handsome" Ayeka said cheerfully.   
  
  
Gary carried Ayeka up the stairs, smiling to himself as he saw Sassami's hair just   
disappear from the top of the stairs as she ran back to her room.  
"Here we are!" he said as he walked into Ayeka's room. He set Ayeka down on the floor   
gently as Sassami peeked her head from over the covers pretending to be asleep.  
  
"You look very majestic in your traditional Jurain dress, very gentle," he said as he   
kneeled up.  
"Gary I don't know what to say" blushed Ayeka. Gary knelt down and kissed her softly.  
Ayeka breathed deeply as he broke the kiss.  
"You don't need to say anything"  
Ayeka was silent as she blushed in happiness.  
"Now go get some sleep with your sister, you've had an exciting evening"  
She nodded and snuggled into her bed.  
"I love you," she murmured to Gary.  
"Me too" he smiled back warmly.  
  
Sassami sighed happily as she snuggled her head into her pillow, happy with the scene in   
front of her.  
  
"Sassami" Ayeka said suspiciously "are you awake?"  
"No" Sassami giggled her head was hit playfully with a pillow.  
"You little sneak!" Ayeka laughed quietly.  
  
  
  
Ryoko smiled as she looked down at Tenchi. She had so much fun playing kiss chase   
with him, even though he didn't really get into the part. Gary had a nice time playing   
Monopoly with Washu, Sassami, Mihoshi and Ayeka. The best part was when Sassami   
had to get a piece that Gary had accidentally choked on when it fell into his Whiskey. He   
was really chewing the plastic piece but he didn't want to admit it.  
  
"He was human after all" she sniggered to herself.  
  
She looked back down at Tenchi. She finally had him all to herself, now she could take it   
nice and slowly, no more hurrying around, trying to get one over Ayeka. Strange. Now   
Ayeka was no longer a threat to her but for most of her life, she was one of the biggest   
threats to her life in the Universe next to Kagato.  
  
"Now I can finally accept her," she said as she closed her eyes "she can be my friend".  
When she thought about it, the more she realized why both Ayeka and herself were so   
mean and bitchy to each other. It was love that did that.  
  
Now it was over, the 'war' was over, but nobody was the victor in a way because nobody   
had beaten the other. "Now that's an anti-climax" she laughed in her head as she   
remembered the fight in Baths, the humiliation they both put each other through, and how   
they stuck together when it really mattered. It was that friendship that would finally shine   
through the hate and the competitiveness that divided them (though they would still   
compete in other areas).  
  
She laid down in mid air above Tenchi and closed her eyes.  
  
"Oh Tenchi" she mumbled out loud, waking Tenchi.  
  
He looked up, seeing Ryoko snoring above him, he sighed, rolled his eyes and got up.   
Pushing Ryoko out of his bedroom.  
  
"You'd think this was her room the amount of times I've found her sleeping here," he   
muttered to himself as he got back in bed.  
  
  
"I can't believe you showed her 'that' picture!" laughed Gary as he downed the rest of his   
Guinness.  
"Well you did look nice when you too me to that dinner here on earth" smiled Washu   
sweetly.  
"Yeah but I thought we had an agreement on that, I mean I did so much for you that   
night"  
"Yeah like what?" Washu said, eyes narrow and a sly grin forming on her lips.  
"Well, I paid for the taxi"  
"No I did"   
"Damn!" cursed Gary "got me!"  
Washu giggled silently for a second.  
"Erm…well…. the drinks I paid for"  
"Nope  
"Aggg" cried Gary "second time!"  
Washu's giggle developed into a full blown sadistic fit of laughter.  
"Yeah okay that's enough" frowned Gary as he poured himself another Guinness.  
"So when's the football on" said Washu as she herself poured another whiskey "I've got a   
lot of Yen riding on this one"  
"About half an hour and same here" answered as he read the TV papers "like you have   
any chance of winning of course"  
"I have too!" Washu shouted "I've predicted exactly how many goals will be scored and   
there will be 12 throw ins, 5 corners and 1 penalty!"  
"I predicted exactly!" taunted Gary in a high-pitched voice "Girl I know Manchester   
United will not lose! They're the strongest team in the league"  
"Well we'll see about that!" humped Washu as she looked away.  
"Yes we will" Said Gary as he looked away.  
  
Fin  
  
I thought I'd try and develop Gary and Sassami and also get Ryoko back into the frame   
(as I have been neglecting her like Mihoshi but she'll get her moment). I'm currently   
thinking of when to tie up this and focus on something new in the Tenchi world. But if it   
gets reviewed I don't really hold out much hope GULP! Cya later guys and gals  



	5. Pt.5

***This Fanfic is written without the permission of both Pioneer and AIC but I'm not   
selling it   
so please do not sue me. Actually what you can do Pioneer and AIC is reopen sales of   
Tenchi   
in the UK (you know how much it costs to get the stuff from America!!!!!!!) PLEASE!!!!   
***  
  
No need for watching 5.  
  
"I'm saying nothing," Tenchi said with a smirk.  
Gary was sitting at the table head in his arms making whimpering sounds.  
"I told you Manchester United would lose" Washu said in an 'I told you so' tone of voice.  
"Dammit I bet next months pay on that match!" Gary wailed into his arms "That was   
going to   
pay for Ayeka's present"  
"Oh was it now" Gary froze and turned around slowly and saw Ayeka, dressed up in her   
Autumn Kimono, arms crossed and looking very angry "Oh hi Ayeka, I was saying.."  
"About how you lost all of next month's pay yes I know what you were saying all right"   
said   
Ayeka quietly as she turned and walked out gracefully.  
  
"She's going to kill me in private" murmured Gary, terror in his eyes.  
"Yeah we know that already!" Ryoko mumbled to herself.  
"You should've listened to me Gary" smiled Washu to herself.  
  
Gary stood up "I'll have to address my fiscal problems later, I'm about 10 minutes late   
with a   
meeting with my friend"   
  
"Ooo more sake!" sighed Ryoko happily "more famous Grouse Whiskey please!"  
"Ryoko the only time you get my Sake is when you threaten me with death by   
mutilation"   
Frowned Gary as he walked upstairs to get changed.  
  
  
Ayeka sat on one of the rolling hills overlooking the valley, she was crying before in   
anger that   
Gary had done such a stupid thing. After all that he did in the past week to impress her.  
  
"Feeling down?" Ryoko said as she appeared behind her. Ayeka said nothing, past   
prejudices   
holding her back. Ryoko sighed and sat down.  
"I'm not the enemy anymore Ayeka" Ryoko said softly wiping a tear away from Ayeka's   
face.  
"I know, my apologies for Saturday" Ayeka said, still looking over at the house and the   
lake.  
"Thanks" Ryoko smiled "Gary is very unhappy that he failed you Ayeka"  
"I know but he can be so stupid and rash sometimes" Ayeka turned to face Ryoko "that   
kind of   
attitude in a man who I love is a new thing to me"  
"I understand" Ryoko nodded "but you must give him time, like Tenchi, he will try his   
hardest to   
make up for his mistakes" she put a hands on Ayeka's shoulders "Believe me give him   
time and   
you two will be getting on like a house on fire!"  
Ayeka laughed, "Your choice of words is exceptional".  
Ryoko smiled back "why thank you princess"  
  
  
The scene was a field; it was frozen over, a fine sheet of white frost covering the ground,   
the   
mud frozen solid. In the middle a party of people stood with dogs.   
  
"Let batch 2 go Gamekeepers" McCann barked into his radio.  
"Will do sir" came the reply and a moment later, Pheasants came flying out. The party   
(about 5   
in all) brought their shotguns to bear and fired off, knocking down 3 of the 10 Pheasants   
that   
flew by, and the dogs faithfully ran to get their dead prey.  
  
"Gary good evening" grinned McCann as Gary approached "nice of you for gracing us   
with   
y'presence" McCann's Glaswegian accent shining through as he reloaded his shotgun.  
"I knew you wouldn't mind me arriving late, had a domestic to deal with back home" said   
Gary   
as he checked his shotgun "miss anything?"   
"Yep we've downed about 5 already" McCain said as he picked up his radio "let batch 3   
go"  
Another load of Pheasants flew into the air from the wood next to the field; everyone   
raised   
their guns and fired. 6 fell this time.  
  
"Wow big catch" laughed Gary as they fell to the ground "What did you want to talk to   
me   
about?"  
"You're fully in the clear now, the Emperor though still is suspicious of you"   
"you mean?"   
"I don't think he'll let it lie, no matter what Princess Ayeka or even Funaho and co say"  
"So he's putting pressure on us?"   
"Yep, he wants us to investigate you over what happened two weeks ago" McCann said   
as he   
fired again "naturally we're not listening".  
"Why is he so hostile?"  
"I'd think I would be pretty suspicious of a bloke who had a big fight with my daughter   
then fell   
in love with her" he smiled at him "Wouldn't you?"  
"Yeah" mumbled Gary as he aimed a shot, downing another pheasant "good point".  
"I'm just saying be careful that's all" McCann said wringing the neck of a half-dead   
Pheasant   
"We need you out there to keep the princesses under protection, Tenchi can't be with   
everyone   
all the time y'know"  
"So what can we do?" asked Gary as he put his Pheasant in a plastic bag.  
"Ayeka and Sassami have been told in private that they are to appear at Reception on   
Planet   
Jurai in two days time. The whole court is expected to be attendance including all major   
members of the Royal family"   
"Wow that's big" smiled Gary as he took aim again "isn't Tenchi going"  
"No he can't the night on the same two day period which him and Yosho do their special   
shrine   
celebrations"  
"So why are you telling me this?"  
"We've been secretly contacted by Funaho, we talked, she understood what had happened   
and   
felt that you were still the best person for the job. So you're girl's Chaperone for the   
night"   
grinned McCann.  
"What?" Gary Coughed dropping his shotgun, setting it off and shooting off the hat of a   
nearby   
gamekeeper.  
"In your new life you're Captain Thatchman in B company, the 1st Battalion, of the Royal   
Lifeguards" explained McCann "very strange I know but it sounds good, the ceremonial   
uniform   
is very impressive and you get a ceremonial sword that you can wear" he smiled "cool   
huh?"  
"If I'm a Captain who are you"  
"Field Marshall" McCann said as though the rank meant nothing in the world.  
"Lucky bastard!" laughed Gary "Thanks for the rank"  
"No problem" nodded McCann "now this way, we can put you in a better light than what   
he   
sees as you at the moment"  
Gary nodded as McCann started walking away to a waiting car.  
"oh and don't worry about the bet you made a couple of nights ago, told ya should've   
gone   
with Washu's prediction"   
"Cheers for the advice" grumbled Gary.  
"Your Uniform will be delivered soon, you'll be given extra advice on how to handle   
yourself   
later on"  
  
****  
  
  
"Ryoko" nagged Tenchi "you haven't swept the yard yet!"  
"Wait let me give it a try" yawned Ryoko as she laid on the couch she stretched her arm   
in the   
direction of where the broom was then did a mock-sigh "Damn" she smiled "can't reach"  
"Oh Ryoko stop being so lazy and do some work for once" frowned Tenchi as he walked   
away.  
"Yeah but its such a beautiful day Tenchi" Ryoko said as she got up a wrapped herself   
round   
Tenchi before he could do anything "why don't you give up your chores for the day and   
go   
spend the day with me?"  
"Ryoko you know I can't do that!" gasped Tenchi as he struggled in vain to get away   
from her   
vice like grip "you'll do anything to get out of work!"   
"I do not" frowned Ryoko.  
"Hey guys" Gary said as he walked past.   
"Gary!" Ryoko said dumping Tenchi on the floor "I was looking for you, why don't we   
play a   
game over some Sake!"  
"At 1 o'clock in the afternoon?" Gary asked suspiciously looking at Tenchi in a battered   
heap   
on the floor "are you trying to get out of your chores"  
"Me?" Ryoko said innocently "no way!"   
"Well I am kinda busy and…oh" Gary said as he saw a nice orange ball of energy in   
Ryoko's   
hand, hidden away from Tenchi as he was behind her.  
"Hahahaha" Gary laughed very nervously "okay wait here and I'll teach you how to play   
poker," sighed Gary as he shrugged at Tenchi.  
"Thank you Gary" chimed Ryoko.  
Tenchi just sighed and walked off to maintain the shrine.  
  
*******  
  
"Whahahaha!" laughed Washu evilly "its working its working!"  
"Ow!" yelled Mihoshi "That hurts!" a loud POP was heard as the offending zit that was   
artificially inserted onto Mihoshi's face blew up. All the disgusting liquid and loose bits   
of skin   
were sucked up instantly and then a cleansing hot liquid flooded in to seal and properly   
cleans   
the zit area.  
  
"At last!" shouted Washu as she clapped her hands above her and thunder and lightning   
machines appeared above her, sending out enough thunder and lightning to make any   
mad   
scientist shed a tear in pride.  
  
"Washu that was very mean" cried Mihoshi as she watched from the operating table to   
which   
she was chained.  
  
"Oh quit whining," said Washu "you've just been the witness of my latest invention. The   
patented zit-be-gone!" Washu laughed like a maniac "see what wonders my invention has   
done   
to your face".  
  
A mirror was put in front of Mihoshi's face. She looked for a second then opened her   
mouth to   
scream really, really, really loud.  
  
  
"Gary, Ryoko" Sassami poked her head through the door "Did You hear something?"  
"No" Ryoko said, eyes totally focused on her hand of cards "2 pair!" she smiled bring out   
two   
2s and two 9s.  
"Three of a kind" Gary grinned as he produced three kings "and a pair of jacks"  
"Dammit!" Ryoko cursed, "How do ya win at this game"   
"A game!" Sassami's eyes lit up as she ran up to the table "I wanna play"  
"Well we're not playing for money so I guess so huh Gary" Ryoko smiled.  
"Yeah sure" Gary pushed a chair out for Sassami.  
  
  
Ayeka had finished putting the washing up on the line, she put the wicker basket next to   
the   
shed and looked up at the clear blue sky (bar a cloud or so).  
  
"He was going to get me a present" she smiled to herself "He means well at least" She   
turned to   
sit down in the grass and look out over the lake.  
"Will father really accept him?" she thought as brushed one of her long pigtails back   
behind her.  
  
She got back up choosing not to answer that question and walked inside the house to   
change   
for her housework chores.  
  
The sight she saw was ghastly to her. Two drunk people playing an adult card game with   
Sassami!   
"What is this!" she fumed.  
"What its legal" said Gary as he whipped his head round in surprise?  
"Yeah Sassami isn't drunk and the card game won't exactly turn her into some wild   
criminal"   
smiled Ryoko.  
"What like you are?" spat Ayeka   
"You take that back!" appeared Ryoko in front of Ayeka, the pair both fuming at each   
other.  
"Wow you two calm down its only a game of" SLAP! SLAP! "Ouch, ouch!" both of his   
cheeks   
were cherry red as Ryoko and Ayeka slapped him to shut him up as they returned to the   
staring   
contest. They stopped for a second and looked back at Gary, then at each other.  
Gary was totally silent as he rubbed his face. He turned around and walked to Sassami.  
"I think we better get Tenchi" Sassami said as Gary picked her up and ran outside   
quickly.  
  
"Gary come back I'm sorry!" shouted Ayeka. She turned back to Ryoko "its all your   
fault!"   
"My fault if you hadn't have slapped him first that wouldn't have happened!"  
"Oh is that so monster woman?"   
"Yeah it is so!"  
  
As Gary and Sassami ran past, Washu's door opened and Mihoshi ran out.  
  
"My face what have you done to my face!" she screamed.  
"Oh Mihoshi its only a small rash, nobody will notice!" Washu shouted as she chased   
her.  
  
  
Speaking of Tenchi he was walking back after fixing a leak in the roof of the Shrine. He   
looked   
at house ahead of him, and then saw smoke blast out of the ground floor.  
  
He sighed to himself saw Gary carrying Sassami on his back.  
  
"What's happened now?" Tenchi said.  
"Hif, Hif…Ayeka and Ryoko are Hif" gasped Gary.  
"Ayeka and Ryoko are fighting and they both hit Gary when he tried to break them up"   
"Oh boy" though Tenchi.  
  
  
"Right you two, you both apologize to Gary. Sassami told me what happened and what   
you two   
did was uncalled for" said Tenchi as he glared at the girls.  
  
"We're sorry Gary" said Ryoko and Ayeka guiltily  
"Apology accepted" nodded Gary in respect.  
"You two can be so difficult sometimes," sighed Tenchi as he walked away.  
  
Both Ayeka and Ryoko's faces were black by the sudden battle that they had fought. Gary   
nodded happily and said to Sassami.  
  
"Fancy we do something with Ryo-ohki before you make a start on dinner?"  
"Sure, Ryo-Ohki!" called out Sassami. Ryo-Ohki walked in as her child-like form.  
"Common you little tyke lets go outside and play something"  
  
They walked outside.  
"Sassami you know the function that you and your sister are going to next week?"   
"What?" gasped Sassami "but how did you?"  
"Lets just say Gary got an invitation with his name on it" beamed Gary.  
"Wow why are you going when you haven't got any ties or relations to Jurai?"  
"As your Royal Protection Officer, I have to keep an eye on you two and that means   
helping   
Azaka and Kamadaki and also making that you're not grabbed by some 70 year old   
suitor"  
"Ah yes" said Sassami looking down.  
"Did I bring up any bad memories?"  
"I can see why you're our Royal Protection Officer now Gary" Sassami said quietly.  
Gary nodded "when we're there you'll have to be on your best behavior, remember the   
procedure, etiquette and attitude that you have taught as a Princess right"  
Sassami nodded slowly "you promise to protect me Gary?"  
"Yes Sassami" smiled Gary.  
  
*******  
  
"Washu what have you done to Mihoshi!" cried Tenchi as he saw the bright red rash on   
Mihoshi's cheek.  
"I told you that they'd notice!" whimpered Mihoshi.  
"Tenchi!" Scorned Washu "That was the wrong thing to say"   
"She must've been allergic to the facial wash you gave her," Ayeka said looking at the   
rash a bit   
more closely "It should wear off soon"  
"My face" sobbed Mihoshi "my beautiful face".  
"Washu what you did to Mihoshi was very, very mean!" glared Tenchi.  
"Okay, okay!" said Washu "I'll figure something out to cure the rash!"  
Ryoko phased in, she gasped as she saw the big red rash.  
"Goddamn!" she laughed "What do you do to deserve that".  
  
********  
  
"God what's with the wailing in there" Gary said, eyebrow raised as he looked back into   
house.  
"I don't know" Sassami said looking over his shoulder.  
"Sassami as I'm going with you, I've never been to one of these Receptions" he smiled   
nervously he sat back down on the grass.  
"Ceremony" Sassami corrected "It's a celebration of the Jurai empire and everyone in it.   
That's   
why the whole court will be there. First there is the main ceremony where my father will   
meet   
the heads of his armies, blah, blah and commend them for their work"  
"This is where I come in?" Gary asked.  
"Yep" smiled Sassami "Listen here and I'll explain everything"  
  
Ayeka walked outside to see Sassami whispering quietly into Gary's ear. She smiled as   
she saw   
how well they got on. Sassami looked behind her and gasped.  
"Oh erm err hi Ayeka" smiled Gary as he saw Sassami.  
"What are you two doing now?" Ayeka asked Sassami in a highly suspicious yet   
humorous   
voice.  
"Oh we're err, erm, uh" Sassami mumbled.  
"We're kind of…kinda…well" said eyes looking up thinking of something.  
Ayeka giggled "I'll just leave you two to think of something" she nodded and walked   
back   
inside.  
"Gary" Sassami looked over "Gary?"  
"Well we were erm," Gary said rubbing the back of his head.  
"Gary!" Sassami laughed "she's gone now!"  
"What?" Gary "Oh yeah" he said dumbly.  
"Well anyway…" Sassami said whispering into his ear.  
  
********  
  
The night was young as Ayeka looked out of her window at the starry night above, she   
looked   
over at her Ceremonial Kimono, split into its several layers. When Gary saw one of her   
Kimonos she was amused when he realized how much effort and time it took to put each   
layer   
on and make it look just right. "It'd so much effort it'd make my head hurt!" she   
remembers him   
saying.  
  
"Ayeka" Sassami said poking her head around the door "Dinner's ready"  
"Sassami" Ayeka asked as she looked out "What were you and Gary talking about   
earlier?"   
"None of your business" giggled Sassami childishly "just some game we were playing"  
Ayeka turned and smiled "okay, you better behave yourself when we go away for the   
week"   
"I will" Sassami smiled sweetly "can we have dinner now?"  
"Of course" Ayeka nodded "lets".  
  
After dinner Gary went upstairs. Upon walking into his room he found a medium sized   
cardboard box, a shoebox, a long, thin cardboard box and a dry-cleaning clothes holding   
packet. The box was marked in black permanent pen: 'CEREMONY: KEEP   
BREASTPLATE   
SHINY!' and on the Clothes packet was written 'Mess Dress for the Reception, DO NOT   
STAIN RED DINNER JACKET!"  
  
"They never knock" he muttered to himself as he opened the Ceremony box. Inside was   
the   
uniform of the Royal Lifeguards, only used in such ceremonies such as the Trooping of   
the   
Color and when escorting the Queen of England when she went to open Parliament (not   
that he   
watched that kind of thing of course, bored him out of his skull). The perfectly shiny   
black riding   
boots with the spurs on. The handcrafted breastplate shone out whenever it caught the   
light   
along with the other brass that he would have to wear. Then came the helmet of shining   
bronze.  
  
"Bloody hell" he thought "I won't be able to stand up with all this metal on me!"  
  
He carefully repacked the box and put the lid back on as he turned to see what was in the   
dry-  
cleaning bag. Opening up the bag he saw a Bright, scarlet dinner jacket with the insignia   
badge   
of the Lifeguards Sewn expertly onto the left side of the jacket, under which was a dinner   
shirt   
with black tie. Completing the dinner jacket setup were a pair of finely pressed black   
trousers.  
  
Smiling to himself as he zipped the bag back up, he laid down on his mattress and pulled   
out his   
Minidisk player.  
  
**********  
  
The big day was early for Gary as he got, got dressed after a prompt shower in a black   
suit and   
looked out of the window. He saw through the early morning fog and low cloud the   
outline of   
the Jurain ship to take them to Jurai. He would have to grab a quick breakfast and get on   
board, meet Funaho and hide in his quarters before Ayeka and co got up. He looked at his   
watch as he drank some water. 5:30AM. He sighed and picked up the stuff and staggered   
through a portal to the pickup point, safely out of view from the house.  
  
Walking out of the portal he walked into a clearing in the woods. Above him was the   
ship,   
must've been floating there for a long time. "You'd think this area be notorious for   
UFO's" he   
muttered to himself as he was transported onto the ship.  
  
He appeared in a special room as servants came up and took his bags and boxes away. He   
nodded his appreciation.  
  
"So this is Captain Thatchman" came a clam, quiet female voice behind. He turned   
around   
slowly and bowed his head in respect, his arms by his side and his feet together as he saw   
Funaho, in her autumn Kimono.  
"Ma'aam" he said obediently "It is an honor"  
"So what they say about the British is true" Funaho smiled "please I wish to talk to you   
before   
the other 'guests' arrive"  
"Of course Ma'am"   
  
They moved to a side room, and knelt down on opposite sides of a table.  
  
"I understand that your superior, Commander McCann recommended you for this post of   
RPO"  
"That is true Ma'am" nodded Gary.  
"And that you have sworn to protect the lives of the Princesses to within an inch of your   
life?"   
"Yes Ma'am"  
"And that you and the 1st Princess Ayeka are in an relationship?"  
"Yes Ma'am..huh!?!" blinked Gary for a second.  
Funaho giggled "Commander McCann let on a bit more than he should've"  
Gary laughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his head.   
"So to business" said Funaho seriously "Your position seems to be a precarious one   
Watchman"  
"Yes Ma'am I trust that my Commander has informed you of the previous events"  
"Commander McCann did indeed" Funaho nodded "A full report was delivered to me and   
to   
me only, the king still does not know of what went on at Thanthos"  
Gary breathed a sigh of relief "So what will I need to do in the ceremony and the   
Reception   
afterwards Ma'am?"  
"Just keep calm and polite to everyone you see, you will be dressed differently from   
everybody   
else who will be attending so do not take the attention seriously" Funaho said lightly as   
she was   
talking to a friend on how to behave on a date.  
"Any specific orders Ma'am" asked Gary "I am of course your humble servant"  
Funaho smiled "You will be required to prevent any 'unsavory elements' from reaching   
the   
princesses. As much as the King dislikes this I feel this is necessary to protect them."  
"I thank you for your advice Ma'am" smiled Gary as he bowed his head again "Ayeka   
does not   
know that I am here Ma'am?"  
"No she does not"  
"May I be allowed to ask a personal question Ma'am?"  
"Go ahead" nodded Funaho.  
"Why have you taken a special interest in my case Ma'am, any other person in my   
position   
would be in prison for assaulting and seriously injuring a subject. But I was saved"   
wondered   
Gary "Why am I so special?"  
"Commander McCann is very protective of you because you are the only Watcher that he   
has   
personally got on with. That and you are the best out there, even if you only have 6 years   
of   
service left" Funaho explained with a tint of firmness in her voice "McCann can be very   
persuasive when one of his best men is going to be struck off for treason"  
Funaho stood so did Gary, bowing his head again in respect.  
"The Princesses are about to arrive and as you are Civil servant on loan from her   
Majesty's   
government you must make yourself scarce" said Funaho.  
"Of course Ma'am" nodded Gary "It has been an honor to meet you"  
Gary bowed his head, turned perfectly and walked through a door directly behind him. A   
couple of seconds later he re-entered must to Funaho's amusement.  
"Erm, well that obviously confirms that Jurain ships do have side rooms to put their coats   
in   
Ma'am" bowed Gary.   
  
*****  
  
"Auntie Funaho!" gasped Sassami running over and hugging her tightly "I didn't know   
you   
would be here"  
"Your mother couldn't be here so I came to pick you up, excited about seeing Jurai   
again?"  
"I am thank you" smiled Ayeka weakly.  
"What is the matter Ayeka?" asked Funaho, confused "I thought you'd be thrilled about   
visiting   
home again"  
"Its not that, I'm really looking forward to it I am really" Ayeka said "its something I'd   
rather   
not talk about"  
"Sassami why don't you go and look at your quarters" Funaho smiled at Sassami.  
"Sure, I'm so glad to see you Auntie" beamed Sassami as she skipped out to her room.  
Funaho looked at Ayeka with a concerned smile "is it about Tenchi?"  
Ayeka shook her head "its about my Royal Protection Officer, he didn't see me off"  
"And that troubles you?"  
"He wasn't in his room this morning, nobody knew where he went" Funaho knew what   
was   
coming "has father removed him?"  
"Not that I know of" Funaho said with a smile.  
"You mean he's not going to be tried?" said Ayeka with hope.  
"No Ayeka he wont be tried"  
Ayeka smiled through the tears and hugged Funaho softly "thank you" she whispered.  
  
Gary sat on his bed and shined his riding boots, readying himself for the coming ordeal.   
He tried   
to practice how he would announce himself. It should come out as:  
  
I am Captain Gary Thatchman of B Company, 1st battalion, the Royal Lifeguards. I   
represent her Britannic Majesty Queen Elizabeth the 2nd's government of Great Britain   
and Northern Ireland on the Planet Earth and have the honor and duty to act as 1st   
Princess Ayeka's and 2nd Princess Sassami's Royal Protection Officer.  
  
However whenever Gary tried to do it without the help of the lines, it kind of trailed off   
at the 'I   
represent' bit. He never was good at this lark. Not surprising really seeing, as it was the   
very   
first time he's doing it in his life.  
  
He wondered what Ayeka was thinking. Was she worried about him? Was she mad that   
he   
didn't see her off on the way to Jurai? Or did Sassami tell her and she was waiting to be   
reunited with her love?  
  
Gary shrugged and started to polish his breastplate.   
  
  
"Gary!" Sassami whispered as she crept into Gary's quarters.  
"They've fallen in the water!" Gary mumbled in a high voice in his sleep.  
"Oh Gary wake up!" giggled Sassami.  
"Wow Sassami what are you doing here?" blinked Gary "Does Lady Funaho know about   
this?"  
"No of course not silly" smiled Sassami as she sat on Gary, producing an off from him   
"Have   
you learnt what you need to do"  
"Just enough" he smiled as he pointed to his Ceremonial Uniform, finely cleaned and   
pressed   
and laid out on the table in the room.  
"Wow you're gonna wear that for the ceremony?" Sassami smiled as she ran over to it.   
"Don't touch the brass, I used a whole bottle of Silvo polishing it up"  
"It looks so weird" said Sassami, her eyes pouring over the items of clothing "Is that what   
your   
soldiers wear all the time?"  
"No" laughed Gary "They used to, that was the standard uniform of the Royal Lifeguards,   
a   
cavalry regiment" he smiled "Nowadays instead of horses and those uniforms they wear   
camouflage and drive Tanks"  
"So they only wear them for ceremonies such as these?"   
"Yep, most regiments dating back past the 19th centaury of Earth's history have their own   
unique uniform" he got out of bed and put a shirt on.  
"How far away from Jurai are we?"  
"We're already here!" giggled Sassami as she pointed outside.  
"Well" he said as he stared out of the window "long time no see" he said to himself.  
"You excited?" Sassami asked looking up.   
"Yes" said Gary blankly " very".  
Sassami smiled and made her way out of the room "You better get ready otherwise we'll   
be   
late".  
  
  
The ship had been in orbit for about an hour and a half, Ayeka though still wasn't ready.  
  
"Ayeka dear!" Funaho called through the door "We have to leave for the surface in half   
an   
hour!"  
"Nearly ready!" called back Ayeka, as she looked in the mirror at her ceremonial dress   
"the   
very definition of Beauty" she smiled to herself as she checked her hair for one final time.  
  
She opened the door and made her way to the ready where Sassami and Funaho were   
waiting.  
  
Funaho and Sassami were also dressed up in the Ceremonial dress of the Family.  
  
"Are we all ready?" asked Ayeka as she looked over herself again "We were waiting for   
me   
right?"  
"Nope" smiled Funaho "One more person"  
"What?" blinked Ayeka "Who?"  
A side door opened. A sound tap signified the entrance of a man. Ayeka looked round to   
see   
Gary, fully dressed as a Royal Lifeguard. He wore a thick, scarlet riding jacket, over this   
was   
his polished silver breastplate shinier than the sun itself. Around this there was a leather   
strap   
holding a riding pouch with the royal crest over it on his back. He carried his shining   
silver   
helmet and attached to his side was the ceremonial sword, sheathed inside its regimental   
holder.   
He wore white gloves, the Dim-e of course just a different color.  
"Gary?" Ayeka said, obviously surprised.  
"Lady Ayeka" Gary began head bowed in respect "I, Captain Gary Thatchman has   
accepted   
the honor to accompany you as your Royal Protection Officer for the duration of this trip"  
Ayeka smiled softly "You have honored yourself Captain" she nodded "Thank you"  
Gary put his head up and grinned broadly "Now is this snazzy or is this snazzy".  
Ayeka smiled deeply and Sassami let a quiet giggle slip.  
"Captain!" laughed Funaho.   
"Sorry Ma'am" smiled Gary.  
"Captain, you will walk in between myself and the Princesses. The Royal Guardians   
Azaka and   
Kamadaki will follow behind the Princesses. Keep your sword sheathed and only use it to   
salute the King. Silence is needed for the whole ceremony. Understood?"  
"Fully understood Ma'am" nodded Gary.  
"Right lets make our way down to the surface"  
  
  
The Grand Hall in the palace was huge, inside was tens of thousands of people from all   
over the   
Jurain Empire, all the Royal court, all the different houses of Jurai were here in force.   
Down the   
center was an aisle and people on each side peered down it. Past the cordon of Jurai   
Royal   
bodyguard to see who was coming now King Azusa and Queen Misaki have taken their   
places   
and have met the many important people in all professions all that was left now was for   
Lady   
Funaho and the Princesses to arrive.  
  
A loud boom as trumpets called out the arrival of the Princesses and everyone looked to   
the   
entrance.   
  
Out first came Lady Funaho, everyone bowed in respect and admiration. Next though   
brought   
gasps rather than bows as a young male with gray eyes in a set of clothes totally alien to   
what   
anybody had seen before followed her, eyes forward, emotionless.  
  
Then finally came the Princesses, followed by the Guardians. But all eyes in the hall were   
on this   
unknown walking between the two sets of well-known public figures. Azusa, the King   
himself   
blinked, as he looked past Lady Funaho and stared, simply stared at this figure, walking   
in step   
with Funaho and the Princesses. Queen Misaki just smiled sweetly at Lady Funaho and   
Funaho   
returned the favor.  
  
Soon the party reached the steps to the throne and Lady Funaho, after hugging the King,   
took   
her place on the thrown on the other side the king, now flanked by both her wives.   
  
Gary stepped back and stood aside with Azaka and Kamadaki as Ayeka and Sassami   
stepped   
up. The King stood and nodded silently as he accepted their bows. They took their places   
next   
to Queen Misaki.  
  
King Azusa looked down at Gary and said in a booming voice "come forward".  
  
Gary Nodded and stepped slowly forward, he bowed his head and dropped to one knee   
once   
in front of the King who was nearly twice as tall as Gary.  
  
"Name yourself unknown soldier?" Azusa asked.  
Gary took a deep breath and thought really hard.  
  
"I am Captain Gary Thatchman of B Company, 1st Battalion, of the Royal Lifeguards. I   
represent her Britannic Majesty Queen Elizabeth the 2nd's government of Great Britain   
and Northern Ireland on the Planet Earth and have the honor and duty to act as 1st   
Royal Princess Ayeka's and 2nd Royal Princess Sassami's Royal Protection Officer."  
  
Azusa looked over the mortal and said, "very well Officer, you may salute and stand   
down".  
  
Gary nodded, stood and in one fluid movement, unsheathed his sword. He held it,   
pointing up,   
holding it his side. Then swept it up and held it up in front of his face, saluting the King   
in front of   
him. He then sheathed it and stepped backwards, rejoining the Guardians.  
  
  
"My mommy!" wailed Ayeka into Misaki's shoulder.  
"My little Ayeka" cried Misaki "My little Sassami!"  
"Mommy!" smiled Sassami as she joined the group hug.  
  
Gary and Lady Funaho stood as they watched this thoroughly heart warming scene.  
  
"As much as I'd hate to say it" blushed Gary "They are so cute when they do that Ma'am"   
he   
grinned to Funaho with closed eyes.  
"Ahh this is my darling daughters RPO" said a really happy voice.  
Gary opened his eyes and saw Misaki right in front of him.  
"Erm, yes Ma'am I am that man" he nodded as he bowed his head. Most of the air in his   
lungs   
was forced out as Misaki hugged him as hard as possible.  
"Oh thank you thank you thank you for helping protect my Daughters from harm"  
"No problem Ma'am" gasped Gary as his innards were crushed "Ma'am what a strong   
grip you   
have for such a young age"  
"Oh you're such a cute kidder," she laughed as she dropped him "What do you think   
sister?"   
Lady Funaho laughed, "I think he'll recover".  
  
Soon after that, Lady Funaho and Queen Misaki left to attend to business. As soon as the   
door   
shut, Gary collapsed into a waiting chair.  
"God that was difficult" he stopped for a second "the ceremony not your parents" he   
laughed   
nervously.  
"Oh Gary, you've got a lot to learn" giggled Ayeka as she sat down next to him.  
"Yeah you'll get used to it, we still have the Reception to do yet!" smiled Sassami as sat   
in   
between the pair.   
"Well at least I won't have to wear something that weighs a ton!" he panted, as he took   
off his   
breastplate "didn't you see me sweating on the way to the throne?"  
"I did but I don't think anyone else did" nodded Ayeka.  
"Will you read to me later Gary" smiled Sassami.  
"Yeah sure" nodded Gary as he ruffled her hair "now you go and get ready for the   
Reception   
tonight"  
Sassami grinned and skipped off to her room, leaving Gary and Ayeka together.  
"How do you think your father took it?" asked Gary taking a glove off and holding   
Ayeka's   
hand.  
"Pretty well" nodded Ayeka "much better than I had thought"  
"Well I'm your RPO for the Reception" he smiled.  
"Yes so I noticed" smiled back Ayeka as they looked into each other's eyes "there'll be   
suitors"   
"And I've been instructed to act on you behalf to turn them down"   
"Really?" she said.  
"Uhuh" he put a hand on her cheek "You looked so cute when you hugged your Mother"  
Ayeka blushed "its what we're used to"   
They kissed slowly.  
"I enjoy those moments," joked Gary as they finished their embrace.  
"I'm glad you do" giggled Ayeka "is this your first time on planet Jurai?"  
"Nope if you remember right back to when you were about 5 years old, you'll see a   
servant   
who cleaned your room everyday and sometimes even sung you to sleep if I disturbed   
you"   
Ayeka's eyes widened "That was you?"  
"Sure was, withdrew to space once you went past your 8th birthday" he smiled   
nostalgically   
"You were so mature for your age!"  
Ayeka blushed again as she stood up "I have get ready for the Reception" she smiled "See   
you"  
"Bye" he smiled as he got up and went to an opposite door to Ayeka.  
  
  
He could remember it clearly now. He knocked on the door of the Princess's private   
wing. A   
small opened the door, child with shiny purple hair, neatly separated into sweeping   
pigtails,   
much like Sassami's.  
  
"Good afternoon Servant" smiled the young Ayeka sweetly "Are you here to clean my   
bedchamber?"  
"Yes Ma'am" I nodded with grace "If that is okay with m'lady then I shall proceed"  
Young Ayeka giggled, "You handle yourself very well for a servant" she stood aside   
"you may   
enter"  
I bowed with respect and walked inside, this was to be my last day on Jurai for 712 years.  
  
  
Ayeka sighed as she laid on her bed, she also thought back to that time when she saw   
him. His   
features much more different than what he looks like now but his voice was exactly the   
same.   
Was it this attraction that drew them both together?  
  
I was sitting in my bedchamber playing and looking outside the window when a knock   
came at   
the great entrance doors to her wing of the palace. I walked gracefully from the door and   
watched as he walked in front, he was in his servant clothes, perfectly clean and poise   
was   
exceptional.  
  
"I haven't seen you before servant" I said as I sat on the bed "have you just joined?"  
"No Ma'am" said the man, not looking as he cleared the room away carefully, checking   
for   
anything that was out of place "I have had the privilege of looking after you since you   
were at a   
very young age"  
  
I blinked at this. This man had taken care of me since I was a baby yet I had no   
recollection of   
him being in any part of my life.  
  
  
Gary pulled off one of his knee high riding boots then looked out at the sunset.  
  
"That cannot be true" Young Ayeka said looking out of the window "I know every one of   
my   
servants"   
"Ma'am I assure you I have been working here for 9 years" I smiled as I placed another   
cloaked camera in the corner of the room, on a top shelf next to the clothes door. I moved   
to   
check over the rest of the Royal apartment.  
"Then you must tell me your name Servant," demanded Ayeka with a smile "I know all   
of my   
personal servants by their first names".  
I grinned to myself as I placed a microscopic voice monitoring device on the wall next to   
the   
wall mounted video-phone.   
"Ma'am just call me Thatch"  
"That is a strange name" Ayeka commented as she watched me "Are you off this planet?"  
"I am Ma'am I come from the edge of the Empire" I nodded as I placed another cloaked   
camera on the wall opposite the main door.  
  
Ayeka opened her clothes door in her bedroom, just how she left it. She looked up and   
smiled   
as she saw her favorite stuffed toy on the top shelf.  
  
"How much longer will you be?" I asked.  
  
She felt the shape of a foreign object as she moved her hand around the top shelf. She   
grabbed   
whatever it was and pulled her arm down.  
  
"I'll done so quickly you wouldn't even know I was here" he smiled as he finished dusting   
the   
rooms.  
  
She opened her hands to see a miniature camera appear out of cloaking. She gasped and   
dropped it hearing it thud onto the floor.   
  
"Thank you for your work Servant" I nodded with a smile "I shall see that your work will   
be   
rewarded"  
"Thank you Ma'am" the man bowed as he closed the door behind him.  
  
Ayeka ran out into the entrance hall to the Princesses wing, she looked at the   
Videophone,   
updated but she felt the area next to it and felt something the size of a pin, she pulled it   
out and   
crushed it with tears welling in her eyes she turned to the wall and ran over hitting the   
invisible   
object off the wall as hard as she could.  
  
There was another knock at the door soon after the servant had left; I opened it to see   
Father   
and another man, strangely dressed. I bowed to my Father and his guest in turn.  
  
"Daughter" Father smiled "I wanted to use your rooms to speak with my guest here"  
"Of course father" I smiled.  
"Your brother Yosho is outside in the fields, why don't you go join him"  
"Of course" I nodded and bowed again to the pair "please excuse me".  
  
  
Gary walked out of the bathroom and dried himself.  
  
I walked rapidly away knowing I had only a one and a half time frame to get out before   
the   
King and his 'friend' arrived to do business. I moved to dark side passage and activated a   
stealth portal to my ship.  
"Goodbye Princess" I smiled as I looked behind me and walked into the portal.  
  
I was on my monitoring ship now.   
  
"53, this is control"  
"Go ahead HQ" I muttered as I put on my earpiece and sat down onto my monitoring   
station.  
"Were you successful in your bugging mission?"   
"Affirmative HQ, subjects have arrived, patching you in now"  
"Roger 53"  
I tapped on my keyboard as I patched HQ a link to the footage of the King of Jurai   
cutting a   
power deal with the head of another Galaxy alliance. I switched my monitor to Ayeka   
who was   
now playing in the fields.  
"I'm sorry Princess" I smiled sadly as I watched.  
  
Gary was awakened from his standing dream by a knock on the door. He opened it to see   
Ayeka at the door, holding something.  
"Princess I'm not very decent ri-wow" Gary gasped as she barged inside and closed the   
door   
firmly. She walked to the window and closed the curtains.  
"Ayeka what is the matter?" Gary asked, worried to say the least.  
"What is the meaning of this?" Ayeka said as she thrust the broken camera into his face.  
"Ah" he stuttered "Well"   
She slapped him squarely in the face.  
"How dare you use me in your spying games!" she said, barely containing her rage.  
"Erm that was a bit unnecessary" he said rubbing his face "look at the camera"  
"I haven't finished with you!" she said nearly exploding with tearful anger.  
"Just listen and calm down please" he said quietly "look at the camera's display, press the   
black   
button on the top and will list the date which it was last used"   
  
She looked at him, high suspicion in her eyes as she pressed the button and a date flashed   
up on   
a holographic projector above the camera. It was the date that he had arrived to clean the   
room.  
  
"We switched it off when your Father left" he said looking away "not once did we record   
you   
or your voice"  
  
The anger drained away from Ayeka's face as she dropped the camera "Does Auntie   
Funaho   
know?"   
Gary nodded "We handed over the tapes a hundred years ago".  
Ayeka bit her lip "I'm sorry I thought you were taking advantage of me"  
"Not you directly no, just your room for half an hour" he said as he turned away and   
opened the   
door "I think you better leave".  
"Gary please" pleaded Ayeka.   
"Ayeka I need to get ready for the reception and I think you do as well," he said still   
rubbing his   
face "please leave"  
Ayeka walked out slowly, wiping a tear away from her face.  
  
  
"So" Funaho said as she sat at her table drinking tea "you found the equipment?".  
Ayeka nodded, her head facing the floor.   
"And Gary told you of its real purpose?"   
"Yes Auntie Funaho" said Ayeka quietly "I have upset him"  
"No you didn't" Funaho said shaking her head "you just brought up painful memories"  
"But he was angry I could feel it" Ayeka said a tear dropping onto the floor.  
"No my dear Ayeka, he wasn't mad at you" Funaho said shaking her head "he was angry   
at all   
the years he wasted doing stuff that was mostly wrong".  
  
Funaho stood and walked over to Ayeka who was openly weeping.  
"I've scared him away because I could not trust him"   
Funaho held Ayeka's head in her shoulder and looked down at her "He will forgive you   
before   
the night is out little Ayeka" she said solemnly "Get ready for the reception and visit him   
before   
it starts"  
Ayeka looked up, she sniffed as she nodded. They both stepped back and bowed to each   
other.  
  
Gary was shining his shoes as he neared the time to appear with the Princesses at the   
reception.   
He clicked his neck he was so stressed. His Mess uniform for the reception had been   
cleaned   
by staff, some recognized him but couldn't quite place the name to the face.  
  
There was a knock at the door, he placed his shoes on the floor, walked over and opened   
the   
door.  
  
Standing there in all her majestic, royal splendor was the 1st Princess of Jurai, Ayeka.  
  
***** Desc of Dress to follow here!!! *****  
  
  
"Princess" smiled Gary; pleasantly surprised "you look marvelous"  
"Thank you Captain" nodded Ayeka in reply "you look very handsome in your suit," she   
said as   
Gary offered her in.  
"But the reception isn't for half an hour yet" Gary said closing the door "Why are you   
here?"   
"I'm here to" she stopped for a second "to apologize for how I acted" she said looking   
straight   
into his eyes "it was rash and the decision taken without thinking" she said taking his   
hands into   
her own "for that I am sorry" she finished her head looking down at the floor.  
  
"I was at fault, you had every right to be angry, I should've told you weeks earlier" Gary   
said   
with a smile "I accept your apology"  
  
Ayeka smiled and hugged Gary deeply  
  
"Wow calm down Princess" smiled Gary "We don't want to crease our costumes for the   
Receptions"  
"Yes" Ayeka said letting go "you're right" she put out an arm "shall we?"  
Gary beamed from eye to eye as he hooked his arm with hers and after he had put his   
shoes   
back on; they left his bedchamber for the main festival hall to greet the many people of   
the   
court.  
  
Fin  
  
***Ho Hum, yet another one done, I think I'm gonna start redoing parts 1-3 to check for   
any silly   
mistakes that I made and check overall readability. Anyway the last part of the series is   
the   
next one (part 6) and might even be last one to include Gary Thatch (unless I find some   
excuse  
to bring him back :). Thanx for reading and hope you liked the series in general***  
  



	6. Pt.6

***This Fanfic is written without the permission of both Pioneer and AIC but I'm not   
selling it so please do not sue me. Actually what you can do Pioneer and AIC is reopen   
sales of Tenchi in the UK (you know how much it costs to get the stuff from   
America!!!!!!!) PLEASE!!!! ***  
  
No need for watching pt.6  
  
"Ah Ryoko cut it out!" Tenchi gagged as she crawled all over him.  
"What we're alone, the night is young" Ryoko grinned evilly "so why don't we take   
advantage of it?"   
"Well I don't think-"  
"Oh come on Tenchi" Ryoko smiled seductively as she held him closer.  
  
Doorbell.  
  
"Ahh dammit!" shouted Ryoko "we always get interrupted like this," she grumbled.  
Opening the door she saw Gary, Ayeka and Sassami.   
  
"We're back" smiled Gary lightly, looking like the walking dead.  
"We had a lovely time," Ayeka said, looking up in the sky with love struck eyes.   
"And I wanna cook!" Sassami giggled playfully as she ran inside and ran into the arms of   
Ryo-ohki in girl form.  
"Where did you put your uniform Gary?" Ayeka asked, "You know the one with the   
fancy breast-plate on it?"  
"Well ha ha" Gary laughed nervously.  
____  
  
Meanwhile in Chelsea Barracks, London.  
  
"Right you 'orrible shower!" screamed the Sergeant as he paced up and down the parade   
ground in front of the squad of soldiers "After I had 'nicely' asked who had nicked   
Captain Jones's Ceremonial uniform and mess dress, nobody came forward to admit who   
it was!"  
  
They all gulped as they prepared for the worst.  
  
"Good for you lot that mysteriously, Capt. Jones had found the two uniforms, polished,   
pressed and cleaned to perfection in his room yesterday"   
  
The squad sighed a collective sigh of relief. But the sergeant came in close.  
  
"But if I find out who it was, then I will make their lives worse than hell!"  
  
____  
  
Gary had sat down to watch the Monday night derby on TV with Tenchi as the night   
drew in. Ayeka had gone upstairs to change from one traditional dress to another and   
Sassami was busy cooking Dinner with Ryo-ohki.  
  
"Hold her down Ryoko dammit!" strained Washu as she directed the ray gun over   
Mihoshi's head.  
"Lemme go!" wailed Mihoshi as she was pinned down.  
"Why exactly are we doing this" Ryoko asked, a bit bemused "and what's that big ray   
gun?"   
"It can redefine the properties in Mihoshi's brain. It won't change her personality, just   
how smart or dumb she is" Washu smiled as her finger's danced across the keyboard.  
"Look how long will this take, Tenchi'll be finished watching the match with Gary in   
about half an hour"  
"Don't worry only about 1 more minute"   
  
Meanwhile back in the living room.  
  
"Aha!" Tenchi shouted as he drunk some Sake "he's been brought down in the penalty   
area.  
"Referee steps up"   
"Penalty!" they both shouted.  
"If we miss this, the shot that will decide which team win's the Premier league…kill me"   
Gary murmured, eyes fixed on the wide screen TV.  
"Same here" Tenchi nodded.  
  
The striker put the ball on the spot within the penalty area, took a couple of steps back,   
stepped up to strike the ball…  
  
Suddenly behind them the door to Washu's lab flung open and the Ray gun on wheels   
sped out, with Washu and Ryoko in hot pursuit.  
  
"Stop it!" screamed Washu "it is set to fire in 2 seconds!!" as the Ray gun veered towards   
Tenchi and Gary as they watched the TV.   
  
Too late. The Ray gun fired a blast of hot, orange energy right at the TV, slicing it in half   
and therefore cutting off all chance of finding out whether they scored or not. The beam   
then bounced back of several angles, narrowly missing Ryoko and returning to the Ray   
gun.  
  
"Erm" Ryoko said as she finally caught up with the Ray gun and turned it off "you two   
okay?"  
  
The pair were silent, just looking at the TV that had just collapsed on itself, mouths   
gaping wide in dismay.  
  
Ryoko looked in the mirror, then saw that the beam had gone right through the center of   
her hair base, a fine, though very visible line went from the top to the bottom of her gray   
hair.  
  
Everyone turned to glare at Washu who was standing in the middle of it all, rubbing the   
back of her head and laughing nervously. Ryoko had murder in her eyes, mother or no   
mother while Tenchi and Gary just looked really, really annoyed.  
  
"Hey!" came a shout from the kitchen "who cut my gas cooker in half!"  
Washu sighed deeply "oh crap"  
  
____  
  
  
"So" Tenchi said as he sipped his tea "what are we gonna do now Washu's gotten rid of   
our TV and cooker?"  
"Eat pot noodles until we can afford a new cooker?" Gary suggested, still recovering   
from what happened earlier.  
"I can make food from a fire" Sassami suggested.  
"We can't let Mihoshi do that!" Ryoko gasped "If we tell her to light a fire for dinner,   
she'll probably set the whole kitchen alight!"  
"That's not true!" said Mihoshi; genuinely hurt "and you know it"   
"Stop it!" Ayeka shouted "If we bicker then nothing be solved now lets do this like   
peaceful beings"   
"Yeah like you've got any good ideas spoilt princess?" remarked Ryoko.  
"What!" fumed Ayeka "you take that back!"  
"Make me!"  
"Hey calm down!" Tenchi said quietly.  
Ayeka and Ryoko sat back down, glaring at each other still.  
"I've got it!" Gary said, "Why don't we go on a holiday cruise!"  
"But what about the Cooker and TV!" Washu said as she looked down at her bonds that   
tied her to one of the posts in the living room.  
"I can get people in to sort that out while we're gone, anyway we need the time to relax"  
"And we can afford such a thing?"   
"Yeah, I'll just declare it on expenses at the end of the month" smiled Gary sweetly "just   
taking a leaf out of Mihoshi's book".  
  
____  
  
The night was still young yet Gary had gone to bed, Ayeka went to 'accompany' Gary   
and make sure he was 'comfortable' and Ryoko snuck off somewhere to drink some   
Sake. Washu was still tied up on the post while Tenchi sat and read.  
  
Sassami though was sitting outside next to the lake with Ryo-ohki in girl form. She was   
reading to her 'younger sister'.  
  
"What do you think of my reading?"   
Ryo-ohki smiled and meowed her praise.  
"Thanks Ryo-ohki" beamed Sassami as they hugged.  
Meanwhile in Gary's room, Gary was curled up in his sleeping bad, smiling to himself in   
his slumber. Ayeka was lying next to him, stroking his hair. "He looked so sweet when   
he was asleep," she thought as she watched him "so sweet, mother would hug the life out   
of him!"   
She giggled at this quietly. The giggling woke Gary up who turned round slowly.  
"You still awake" Gary said sleepily.   
"Yes" Ayeka said with a smile.  
Gary hugged Ayeka gently, with a short soft kiss.  
"What did you think of the Reception?" Gary asked.  
"Typical Jurain event" she said with a sigh "full of old men and suitors"  
"Oh well, you're back now" he smiled "nobody will follow you back here"  
"Yes that's a reassuring thought," giggled Ayeka.  
  
____  
  
"Oh come on!" Washu pleaded, as Ryoko floated past in the morning "I didn't mean to   
slice your hair in half, please let be go!"  
"Okay" sighed Ryoko as she checked her hair again "but you better not make any more   
trouble before we go away!"  
"I promise" Washu said as she jumped down as Ryoko cut her bonds "now to make the   
ultimate cheese grater!" she cackled evilly as she ran into her lab.  
  
The day was different than the usual, mainly because nobody had a proper breakfast   
(except Ryo-ohki who eat the whole carrot supply). Instead they set about packing for the   
holiday.  
  
At the end of the day packing was still underway, especially in the female camp.  
  
"Bloody hell!" Gary exclaimed as he saw the mountain of cases "you're gonna sink the   
ship with that amount of luggage!"  
"Hey just because we like to dress and keep beautiful" Ryoko said, arms crossed.  
"Yes" Ayeka added, "I need to have at least 20 separate Kimono's for the trip!"  
"But how are we gonna carry all of that!" Nobiyuki said, acting as though he was   
confronting an evil creature.  
"Easy one at a time silly!" Mihoshi giggled.  
  
The men just sighed and started to load the MPV with the cases.  
  
____  
  
They were outside the ship and Ayeka and Ryoko were already arguing, Gary tripped and   
buried Tenchi in a pile of cases and Mihoshi had the hots for some young dockworker   
that was getting everyone aboard the ship. Washu had been buried in her holocomputer   
readings about her 'invention of the Millenium' as she called it.  
  
"Wow isn't it big!" exclaimed Sassami as she walked aboard.  
"So western" said Tenchi.  
"Oh my god!" shrieked Gary as he dropped his bags "Sky sports wide screen TV at the   
bar" he said tearfully as he rubbed his head against the screen "Tikka come to papa!"  
"I knew it" Ayeka muttered to herself.  
"Guess your man cares more about a TV than you sis" grinned Ryoko.  
"Why you" Ayeka seethed as she turned to face her foe.   
"Ladies calm down, we'll get fined if we cause any trouble," Nobiyuki hissed, as Ryoko   
and Ayeka were about to come to blows. He pointed over to the light blue security   
guards.  
"So we can take them'" Ryoko smiled.  
"Not unless you want to be thrown in prison for assault"  
"Then I'd phase through the walls and leave California raisin head here to her fate,"   
replied Ryoko cheerfully.  
"What?" shouted Ayeka angrily.  
"That's not the point dammit, just don't mess around here okay!" Nobiyuki said trying to   
stay calm.  
  
____  
  
After they were shown to their rooms, the ship left the port for its cruise around Japan.   
That night, Tenchi was alone in his Cabin freshening up when there was a knock at the   
door. He opened it to find Ryoko in her usual provocative attire holding a big bottle of   
Sake.   
"Hey Tenchi" Smiled Ryoko "how bout we spend the night together?"   
"No way!" Tenchi gulped "we'll get fined if we're found drinking home made sake in   
our cabins!"  
"Yeah so?"   
"So I'm the person in charge of the cabin so I'll get the blame"  
"Yeah like any of those security bozo's find out!" She walked in "go on try it"   
  
"Mr. Nobiyuki Misaki cabin 64-A" Nobiyuki grumbled to the Security guard as he wrote   
out a ticket for the drinking violation.  
"Thank you sir, your 5000 yen fine will be delivered after the voyage" smiled the   
Security Guard as he handed Nobiyuki the ticket and walked out of the cabin. He glared   
at Tenchi.  
  
"My wrong dad?" Tenchi laughed nervously.   
"This is coming out of your allowance," said Nobiyuki sternly.  
"Oh I'm sorry Tenchi," said Ryoko with a really sad voice "I didn't mean to get you in   
trouble"  
"Oh mother how am I going to pay this off!" fainted Tenchi as he fell on the bed.  
  
_____  
  
The next day was bright hot and sunny, perfect conditions for the perfect suntan. Ayeka   
was out exploring, wondering what the ship had to offer. She went onto to the main sun   
deck to the rear of the ship.  
  
"Ayeka" came a shout from behind "yoo-hoo!"  
Ayeka turned to see Mihoshi on a deck chair by one of the bars sipping from a drink. She   
wore one of those short skirts. She had her legs crossed and Ayeka could see a white   
flash of her underwear.  
"Hello Mihoshi" Ayeka said, not wanting to point out in public her 'flaw' in her   
appearance "how are you"   
"I'm fine and I've had quite a weird morning. All these men who I've never seen in my   
life keep coming over to me and asking for my room number and name" she giggled "I   
feel so embarrassed"  
"What do you expect?" Ayeka mumbled to herself.   
"Whatcha doing?" Mihoshi enquired, her blank stare back.  
"I'm looking for Gary"  
"Oh he's with a couple of University friends in the lower deck bar"  
Ayeka blinked "oh" she said thinking for a moment "thanks" she smiled as she walked   
off.  
  
"So Keith" Gary asked as he gulped down some more Guinness "What are you doing   
when you get back?"   
"I'm going on another holiday after this its well good!" Keith smiled "There was this   
bloke right, who offered me a flight to Thailand right?"   
"Yeah" Gary nodded.  
"Anyway he said all I had to do was go there, talk to this bloke in Bangkok who'd give   
me this white power stuff then come back. Simple as that"  
"Yeah" smiled Gary "is this bloke coming with you?"   
"Naw" shook Keith "he said he was scared of flying or something"   
"Wow that's cool," grinned Gary.  
"There you are Gary" smiled Ayeka as she joined Gary and Keith "who's your friend?"  
"Oh this is Keith" he smiled "Keith this is my Girlfriend Ayeka"  
Ayeka blushed deeply at the ease that Gary had said the last sentence.  
"Nice name" he nodded as he shook hands with her.  
"Oh I went to the Holiday rep's meeting Gary" Ayeka said.   
"And the rep said"  
"If you're British and you complain (which she added you will do at least once this   
voyage) there is a brick wall to talk to in a room next to the swimming pool room"   
"Does that include complaints about the non-alcoholic mini-bar?" Gary asked.  
"Yes I think so"   
"Damn!" Gary cursed to himself.  
  
_____  
  
"This place is really big Ryo-ohki," said Sassami as she lead Ryo-ohki along the   
shopping level "I wonder what they sell here?"  
Most of the shops were duty free outlets selling cigarettes, beer and spirits. Others were   
expensive clothes shops dedicated to serving the 20-something western wannabes. Seeing   
that there wasn't much in the way of retail outlets catering for her or Ryo-ohki she   
elected to go change and go to the Sun deck to join Mihoshi.  
  
"Wow Tenchi this is so luxurious" Ryoko smiled as she walked out onto the sun deck in   
a very revealing two piece bikini. To get Ryoko to even wear anything at all for   
sunbathing was a struggle; she even tried to get him out of the cabin naked for a moment!  
"Yeah, you gonna grab a couple of sun beds while I get some drinks"   
  
Ryoko nodded happily and looked around, she waved over to Mihoshi, who had changed   
into her swimming suit and was tanning herself.  
"Ryoko I saved some beds for you lot" smiled Mihoshi as she put away her love comic.  
"Thanks" Ryoko nodded as she laid herself down on one of the beds, stretching herself   
out and attracting just as many looks from the men as Mihoshi did earlier. But when she   
saw a couple come near, she growled in annoyance. The men, seeing this show of force   
chose to back off rather than face the consequences.  
  
"Oh hi Mihoshi" said Tenchi as he sat down next to Ryoko bringing over some drinks.  
"Hey Tenchi" Mihoshi smiled, her eyes glued to a love comic.  
Sassami came running up with Ryo-Ohki "hi everybody" she chimed as Ryo-Ohki   
climbed up onto one of the sun beds next to Mihoshi.  
"Hey Sassami, hi Ryo-ohki" smiled Mihoshi.  
"Wow those new Love comics?" Sassami asked with wide eyes.  
"Sure are" nodded Mihoshi cheerfully "want to read some?"  
"I really would thank you"   
"Where's Gary and Ayeka" Ryoko asked Tenchi as she sipped her drink.  
  
____  
  
Speaking of Ayeka and Gary, they were still in the bar with Gary's 'friend' Keith.  
  
"Anyway right our house in the University is called Lion heart house. We call it Lion fart   
house!" He sniggered as he drank some more beer.  
  
Gary had just woken himself up while Ayeka was getting nauseous from the very strong   
pong of alcohol on Keith's breath.  
  
Gary coughed then looked at his watch "my look at the time!" he turned to Ayeka   
"maybe we should go back to our cabin and leave Keith here on his own" he said   
winking slightly.   
"Oh" smiled Ayeka, catching on "yes lets, bye Keith"  
"Yeah and there was this time when we covered the Dean's face in glue, black paint and   
feathers!" Keith rambled on as Gary and Ayeka snuck away.  
  
"How do you find these people Gary" Ayeka muttered as they walked out of the bar.  
"I don't know, I just snuck in for a quick pint and he thought I was a more handsome   
version of Vinnie Jones" Gary shrugged "go figure"  
"You always are a magnet for the strange ones" Ayeka said under her breath.  
"I heard that" Gary smiled as they got to their cabin.  
  
The night brought out the smart dress dinner brigade. With Ryoko and Ayeka as usual   
trying to out do the other in terms of dress. Ryoko with her hair done back into a ponytail   
and dressed in a refined yet stylish and provocative Oriental dress and Ayeka going full   
out with one of her expertly crafted dinner Kimonos rarely used for all but the most   
important of occasions. God knows why this small dinner on the second night of their   
holiday should be so important to her but she wore it nonetheless.  
  
They both came into the grand hall, which adjoined the dining chamber and immediately   
stared at each other in disbelief.  
  
"Damn" thought Ryoko "she's gone for the biggie how can I match that!"  
"Blast!" thought Ayeka "she's gone full out how can I compete with that!"  
"Just grin and bear it," they both thought to themselves.  
  
"Good evening Ryoko, I trust you went through a lot of trouble to look like that," said   
Ayeka said, trying to disguise the tone of jealousy in her voice.  
"Speak for yourself, you must've spent hours working that up" Ryoko replied grudgingly.  
  
"Dammit I hate these suits!" cursed Gary as Sassami, also in her ceremonial Kimono (on   
Ayeka's orders of course) made some adjustments to the waist.  
"Oh just hold still Gary" Sassami said as she threaded the belt through the trousers.  
"I feel for ya buddy" grinned Tenchi "ouch!" he jumped at the sudden prick of pain   
"Mihoshi did you remember to take the pins out of my shirt?"  
"Oh yeah I knew I forgot something" Mihoshi said blankly. She was dressed like she was   
on her way to the prom. A nice white dress fit for a fairytale princess (well one with a   
brain the size of a sardine's).  
Gary looked at his watch "Ayeka, Ryoko and Nobiyuki will be waiting for us"  
"Done Gary" smiled Sassami as she got up and checked Ryo-ohki over for a second.  
  
By the time they got to the Grand hall, all hell was about to break loose.  
  
"Well at least I didn't turn up looking like some cheap Miss Saigon imitation!" Ayeka   
said coldly.  
"What!" Ryoko shouted, incensed  
"You heard!" spat Ayeka.  
"That's enough!" Washu said, agitated to say the least "Ryoko you calm down"   
"Washu you stay out of this"   
"Now that is no way to talk to your mother" smiled Washu. This naturally turned a   
couple of heads as this statement had just come out of a 12-year-old girl.  
"Oooo you!" Ryoko seethed.  
"Oh god the last thing we need is this!" Gary said with a sigh.  
"They're so uncontrollable sometimes," agreed Tenchi.  
"Hey guys common maybe you shouldn't fight here," Mihoshi pleaded as she waded in.  
"You keep out of this!" Ayeka glared at Mihoshi.  
  
Later.  
"Mr. Nobiyuki Misaki, cabin 64-A" said Nobiyuki to the security guard as he wrote out a   
ticket for the damage done to the grand hall after Ayeka and Ryoko brawled, Gary and   
Tenchi along with Mihoshi also getting in trouble trying to break it up.  
  
"Thank you sir" Smiled the security guard "your 20000 Yen bill will arrive when you get   
back home"  
Nobiyuki glared at the Ayeka and Ryoko, dresses torn after their fight. They both blushed   
in guilty embarrassment.  
"You better work extra hard around the house to help pay this off!" he said sternly before   
walking off in a huff.  
  
____  
  
After the incident, the group dined, although all possibility of sitting at the captain's table   
had been thrown out of the window when Ryoko threw a steel couch at Ayeka.  
  
Dinner at the table was surprisingly tense. Ryoko and Ayeka staring each other out as   
they sat. Around them was a no mans land of empty tables and seats as to be honest who   
would want to sit anywhere near the two women who made world war two look like a   
simple playground fight!  
  
Next to Ryoko was Mihoshi, her dress ripped a bit as she tried to restrain Ayeka rather   
unsuccessfully. She was chatting away happily to Tenchi like the whole thing didn't   
happen at all.   
  
Gary, who had a ruined suit thanks to Ryoko, was eating happily, talking to Sassami and   
Ryo-Ohki who was happily oblivious to the rude stares they were getting from the rest of   
the guests.  
  
Washu sat next to Tenchi and was also talking with Gary with Sassami and Ryo-Ohki,   
occasionally glancing the odd worrying look at Ryoko and Ayeka.  
"Ryoko" Tenchi said clicking his fingers to attract her attention "can't you just enjoy   
yourself?"  
"I would if somebody in particular would apologize" Ryoko said looking right at Ayeka.  
"For what? You're ugl-" Ayeka began to spit back but her mouth was covered by Gary.  
"Princess don't make a scene and add and extra hundred thousand yen to Nobiyuki's bill"   
Gary said quietly. After dinner the group all decided to go to the bar. Ryoko elected to   
order the drinks as everyone sat down. Still a bit wound up by Ayeka she leaned on the   
bar waiting for service. Then she saw the bottles of Tequila stacked along the bar. A wide   
grin formed on her lips as she turned round and shouted to Ayeka.  
  
"Hey come over here for a second I wanna talk to ya for a second"   
  
____  
  
"A drinking contest" Ayeka blinked "Well I don't know" she was hesitant to say the   
least.  
"Oh common Ayeka, you know how badly you want to beat me" smiled Ryoko "even   
though you haven't got a hope in hell of doing that of course"  
"Oh yeah" Ayeka said, whipped up by the challenge.   
"Yeah"  
"Okay then I'll join your silly little contest," said Ayeka as though she didn't really care.  
  
They both sat down, shot glasses all over the table with a bottle of Sake in each hand as   
they stared each other out again. Then they filled each glass with the golden liquid.  
  
They waited for a moment.  
  
Then they began! Swallowing each glass as fast as they could, each trying to out drink   
the other. Ayeka clearly the amateur at this made it up with the pure will to win.  
  
"Wow look at Ryoko go!" giggled Sassami, Ryo-Ohki clapping her hands.  
"I didn't know Ayeka knew how drink like that" blinked Gary.  
"She doesn't" said Tenchi just staring at how fast the pair were drinking.  
  
Ryoko and Ayeka kept up the speed, neither wanting to give in as they stopped and   
drunkenly went to fill up the second row of glasses. Tequila went everywhere as they   
both missed the target by miles.  
  
The drinking off the second row kicked off at a much slower pace as they both started to   
succumb to the effects of the alcohol. Ryoko not showing the effects of drunkenness as   
much as Ayeka, as she was swaying all over the place.  
  
"Wow" smiled Mihoshi "how do they keep it up"  
"Sheer competitiveness?" Washu offered.   
  
By the time of the third row of glasses (which Gary and Tenchi had to fill for the girls)   
the flow of drinking and dried up to just matching the others drinking. Ryoko would   
drink one and slam the glass down on the table with a drunk 'beat that' stare on her face.   
Ayeka would hiccup, nod shakily and slowly drink one of her own then drink another   
with an even drunker stare on her face.  
  
By this time everyone was staring at the pair, amazed that the Princess had even lasted   
this long. Then as everyone expected, Ryoko's iron liver started to win the day as Ayeka   
struggled to match Ryoko glass for glass.  
  
But was she? Ryoko was slowing down herself; her incredible liver might not be able to   
hold any more. And just as Ayeka got drowsy, Ryoko started to give way as well, both   
girls pushing each other to their limits.   
  
Then just as they both slowly lifted their glasses on the fourth and final row Ayeka closed   
her eyes and finally succumbed to sleep.  
  
"Ryoko wins" Sassami smiled looking at Ayeka then looking at Ryoko. Ryoko was also   
slumped over the table, snoring happily.  
"I guess it's a draw" shrugged Tenchi.  
"Oh well" smiled Gary picked the slumbering Princess "I'm going to take Ayeka Sassami   
and Ryo-Ohki to bed"   
"Okay see you in the morning" smiled Mihoshi as she looked at Ryoko.  
"She was always a stubborn one" Washu giggled to herself "Why they didn't call it quits   
by the third row I don't know"  
  
_____  
  
"Cabin sweet Cabin" smiled Gary as Sassami opened the door for him. He took the two   
main layers of the Kimono off Ayeka carefully and tucked Ayeka in softly.  
  
"When will Ayeka wake up?" asked Sassami as she looked down at her sister.  
"I have no idea but I know that its not gonna be anytime soon" laughed Gary "want me to   
read you a bedtime story?"   
"Yay!" Sassami smiled as she hugged Gary. Ryo-ohki meow happily as she poofed back   
into Cabbit form. Sassami then looked at her elaborate Kimono, then back at Gary. She   
coughed.  
"Oh yeah, I'll just go to my room and get my book" he smiled and slipped out of the   
Cabin.  
"I really take this big brother thing a little too seriously," he thought to himself as he   
walked over to his cabin.  
  
"There you go Ryoko" Tenchi said as he laid her down on the bed in her room.  
"Oh Tenchi" she murmured in her sleep.  
Tenchi shivered at the thought "she really thinks of me 24/7?" he said to himself as he   
slipped outside "now that is very unnerving!"  
  
And so the moon rose over the ship as it sailed its course round Japan. Mihoshi joined   
Gary, Sassami and Ryo-Ohki as they all snuggled together to read a story. Washu sat in   
her room, working as usual. Tenchi slept a nice sleep in his room, as did Ayeka and   
Ryoko after their inconclusive drinking contest. Rest assured that they would get some   
nasty surprises in the morning.  
  
_____  
Ryoko was awoken by a shudder to the ship. Sitting up she saw that the ship was veering   
erratically to the left and right.   
  
"Hmm I wonder what's the problem?" she thought as she flew through the ceiling up the   
Bridge.  
  
She blinked when she saw the situation. Sheer pandemonium. People were running   
around everywhere, grown men were crying and the captain had a life jacket on   
screaming "we're all gonna die run!"  
"Hmm something bad huh?" She said as she vanished back to her room. The chaos   
stopped.  
"She gone?" the Captain said.  
"Yep"  
"Good" the Captain said evilly "okay aim for that island"  
"Aye aye captain" said the whole of the Bridge happily.  
  
"Hey guys" Ryoko said as she appeared on the deck. Tenchi, Gary, Washu and Mihoshi   
was already up, Ayeka was still knocking out Zs.  
"Hi Ryoko" smiled Tenchi.  
"Something bad's happening" Ryoko said, slightly worried.  
She was interrupted as the ship shuddered heavily as it hit something.  
"Tenchi!" Sassami shouted as she ran up to him "we've run out of water, we've run   
aground!"  
"Nonsense" laughed Gary "see I'll show you" he turned "Mihoshi"   
"yeah Gary?"   
"Jump overboard"   
"okay"  
Mihoshi took a run up, jumped overboard. A couple of seconds of silence then a muffled   
crump as she hit the dry, sandy ground.  
"Wow" shouted Mihoshi from below "comes on in the sands fine!"  
"Oh my god!" shrieked Gary, "we're doomed" he ran around, arms in the air "abandon   
ship, cowardly men and children first!"  
"Aggg!" cried Tenchi "what are we gonna do!"  
"Hold it!" said Washu firmly   
"I'm the captain of this Shipwreck!"   
Gary stopped and looked at Washu who was dressed up in an overstated sailor uniform.  
  
Ayeka woke up lazily then groaned as she rubbed her head.  
"Damn headache" she muttered as she got up and looked out of the porthole.  
"Wow nice beach we're sailing on" she smiled "beach!" she blinked.  
"Gary!" she shouted as she got dressed and ran out of the Cabin.  
  
_____  
  
"Now if we just get our stuff off the ship, get some food and water for a couple of days   
and get on the island, I can work out a gate to get us back home" Washu explained.  
"And what do we do until then!" Gary said grabbing his head "no TV, no Guinness and   
no air conditioning!" a flowerpot with a mini Union Jack flag sticking out of it fell on his   
head.  
"Shut up Gary!" snapped Washu.  
"Okay" Gary said quietly.  
"So you can get us out of here" Ryoko said.  
"Oh of course I can oh sweet daughter of mine" smiled Washu as Ryoko winced at the   
daughter bit "I am of course the smartest genius in the Universe".  
"Gary!" Ayeka said as she burst onto the deck "the ship, sand…beach…I'm confused!"  
"And looking like 'the thing'" sniggered Ryoko.  
"Calm down Ayeka" Gary said rubbing Ayeka's arm "Washu's got the situation in hand,   
we're just moving to this desert island for a day or two before we go back home, fancy   
that?" he smiled.  
"Oh" said Ayeka, face blank for a second.  
"You better have a shower Princess, you've got a hangover" he smiled.  
"Yes of course" said Ayeka, looking as though she's just made a fuss over nothing. She   
started to walk back into the ship.   
"Common Sassami" smiled Gary "we need to get our stuff ready"  
  
_____  
  
"Washu did you even talk to the captain or anyone who actually worked for the ship?"   
Ryoko asked.   
"No why?" Washu said as she carried a case inland on the island with the rest.  
"The ship is sailing away"  
"What!" Washu acked! As she threw her head round. She saw the ship sailing over the   
horizon, ticker tape and confetti being thrown everywhere by the rest of the passengers as   
they sailed off for their holiday.  
  
Ayeka had showered before they got off the ship. She still had a slight headache though   
as the hangover was still there. Ayeka and Gary were told to walk up to a small clearing   
that was some way into the island. Ayeka walked ahead majestically while Gary trudged   
behind, loaded over with cases.  
  
"Ayeka" Gary said as he carried her cases, dragging a bag along with him.  
"Yes Gary" Ayeka said sweetly as she walked along.   
"I was thinking about something," he said as he walked along.  
"What was that?"  
"Well I was thinking about our 'incident'"   
"Oh" Ayeka said quietly.  
"You were very good" Gary laughed nervously.  
"Thank you Captain" giggled Ayeka.  
"You're welcome Princess"   
"I was thinking maybe we could do a kind of sparring session thingy" Gary said very   
nervously smiling.  
Ayeka paused at this. After a moment she said,   
"I'll think about it" She stopped "This was the place Washu told us to put our cases I   
think"  
"Yeah who'd think we'd spend the rest of the holiday on a desert island eh?" Gary said as   
he put the rest of the cases down on the ground. Sassami suddenly ran into the clearing   
behind the pair.  
  
"Come on Tenchi!" laughed Sassami as she skipped along, Ryo-Ohki ran behind Sassami   
Tenchi followed, he too was covered in cases and gripped a bag with his teeth.  
"He's so kind" blushed Mihoshi as she walked behind him.  
  
As soon as he reached the clearing he dropped all his bags then dropped onto the floor   
himself, gasping for air.  
"I hif, hif took" gasped Tenchi "too many cases"  
"Oh Tenchi" smiled Ayeka as she sat down on one of the cases. Gary helped Tenchi.  
"Don't worry m8 you've got 2 days to relax on the beach, how that sound huh?"  
"Sounds good" smiled Tenchi, recovering instantly at the relaxing part.  
  
Washu then ran into the clearing.   
"The ships left!" she cried "they tricked us off the ship!"  
"What!" Tenchi said "But Father's still on there"  
  
Meanwhile.  
  
Nobiyuki was lounging in a Jacuzzi. There he relaxed, holding a ceramic bowl filled with   
sake.  
"I wonder where everyone else went," he thought to himself as the ship sailed on into the   
sunset.  
  
______  
  
"Are you sure its legal to dump unruly passengers on desert islands?" Tenchi asked Gary.   
"Last time I heard…yes" Gary replied, uncertain to say the least.  
"And how long ago was that" Tenchi questioned further.   
"I don't know" Gary said slowly as he rolled his eyes back.  
  
"Damn that Nobiyuki" Ryoko said, crushing a thick branch with her hand "Next time I   
see him!"   
"Next time you see him you'll say 'hello, how are you doing?'" Washu interrupted.  
"Pipe down mother" Ryoko said sarcastically.  
  
Ayeka just sat down next to Sassami who was playing slapsies with Ryo-Ohki; she was   
still tired and a bit sick from the hangover. Mihoshi just stood there, dumbfounded, still   
trying to figure out what was going on.  
  
"I guess we better sort out sleeping and dinner" Tenchi shrugged.  
"This could be a big slumber party!" giggled Mihoshi.   
"Or a parasite's paradise" Gary muttered as he clapped his hands catching a mosquito.  
  
After a while a campfire was erected, Sassami got down to cooking a nice Curry for   
everyone each and Ryoko sat on the beach, catching what rays of the sun that were left.   
Sure enough Ryoko dragged Tenchi along with her. Ayeka laid down on a special bed   
using Gary's sleeping bag and loads of pillows and started to sleep off her Hangover   
again.  
  
Gary sat around with Washu and talked about times past while Mihoshi played with Ryo-  
Ohki. Soon enough dinner was ready and everyone milled back to the clearing and eat a   
hearty meal.   
  
_______  
  
After dinner Gary put Ayeka to bed again with Sassami and Ryo-Ohki and went for a   
walk, he saw the crystal clear inland sea as he went down to the beach and sat down,   
looking over the moonlit waters.  
  
"Nice turn for a holiday" he thought to himself as he laid down and looked over the sky.   
He thought of what he used to do, and how it had affected him.   
"What it has done to my mind" he though painfully "I will never know".  
He closed his eyes for a second and let the cool summer breeze wash over his closed   
eyelids.  
  
Opening them showed Washu in adult form, she was standing over him.  
  
"Lonely?" she asked with a smile.  
"Not anymore" he nodded as he sat up.  
  
"Tell me Gary" Washu said rocking back and forth slowly "Why are you watching us?"  
"Who me personally?"   
"No you numbskull!" giggled Washu "Operation Watchman"  
"Watchman was formed as a top secret organization, nobody outside of the permanent   
members of the UN Security Council know it even exists."  
"I knew that but why was it formed" Washu interrupted.  
"There are loads of conspiracy theories, Bildeburg, CIA running things in the US, Mafia   
running things in Russia and China" he smiled "if they knew what I knew, they'd be   
dead"  
"What do you know?"  
"The UN Security Council IS the government!" he said looking at Washu "How do you   
think the non-interference agreement with all major galaxy alliances was signed? We   
personally asked for it!"  
"No way" Washu smiled.  
"Yeah" Gary nodded "So now that we were effectively sidelined from joining any proper   
alliance, we decided to use our newly found dimension technology to form Watchman.   
Idea was to monitor events, keep the world government informed and if need be act on   
the information"  
"That explains the destruction of the Thanthos arena games"  
Gary nodded.  
"Well that's new to me" Washu said looking down at the sand.  
"Didn't Lady Funaho tell you?"  
"No I just assumed that they took the decision themselves"  
Gary looked back out to sea again.  
"I know you know what's going to happen in the future" Washu grinned.  
"Yep so I do"  
"Why won't you tell Ayeka and Sassami?"   
"Too scared on what might happen"   
"What?" Washu said skeptically "how so?"   
"We're very close" Gary sighed "and I don't want to upset Sassami so soon, she likes me   
so much we get on like she's my little sister or something"  
"You have to though," Washu said, looking out to sea with Gary.  
"I know I know, I'm young, you're 19,982 years my senior" Gary smiled  
"It's the future you can't change it" Said Washu with tint of seriousness.  
"That's debatable" Gary muttered.   
"What you mean?"   
"Yep I want to stay with her" Gary nodded.  
Silence.  
"Well that's hit me hard" giggled Washu.  
  
_____  
  
The corridors of HQ were packed. People scurried everywhere with reports, mission   
statements and debriefing notes. Something big had happened. McCann strode through   
this with his G2, Captain Weserdau.   
  
"Latest reports Captain?" McCann   
"He's not going through with it" shook Weserdau.  
"What is he doing?" McCann thought to himself as they strode into the massive control   
room, over a thousand specialists manned the machines, monitoring all the operational   
Watchmen all over the Dimensional spectrum.  
"Get me an uplink on no 53's status ASAP" McCann said as he sat down to look at the   
big screen.   
  
Soon enough a stat screen flicked up, showing the last 24 hrs events of Gary. McCann   
took out a small notepad and took down a couple of notes before walking quickly into his   
private office.  
  
Sitting down he tapped a couple of keys on his LCD pad and a holographic display came   
up.  
  
"Is Lady Funaho available?" McCann said into his intercom.  
"No sir the Lady is away on business"  
"Damn" he thought to himself "she knows"  
He tapped on the intercom again "Get in touch with no.53 as soon as he steps foot back in   
the Misaki house and tell him to get in touch with me ASAP"  
"Yes Commander" came the reply.  
  
_____  
  
The clearing was a circle of clear white sand; nothing was in clearing apart from two   
people. One, covered in black the other covered in the traditional Jurain battle dress and   
war paint.  
  
This though was totally different to the previous encounter. Whereas they were both   
fighting against each other for their lives, this time this was for fun, to see how far each   
other's abilities went.   
  
They faced each other out, both faces had all emotion drained. Gary bowed his head in   
respect while Ayeka bowed forward. A small wind whispered past in the middle making   
a small miniature tornado of sand and dirt. A sign to start? Maybe. They continued to   
stare, and then circle round the ring, still staring. They got closer ever so slowly.  
  
Then Gary made his move, jumping to the side then right at his opponent his swung his   
foot round, aiming a kick at Ayeka's side. Ayeka dodged and swept at Gary's free foot,   
sending him crashing to the ground. Gary flipped back up, avoiding a downward kick by   
Ayeka and turning to face her once again.  
  
Ayeka wasted no time; she forward with a barrage of shield assisted punches, sweeps and   
kicks. Gary worked hard to block. Hands a blur as he called up a shield to help block   
each blow then tried to get some shots of his own in, putting Ayeka onto the defensive as   
he delivered his own barrage.  
  
This was when Gary made his mistake; getting a little bit ahead of himself he placed a   
halfhearted kick to Ayeka's gut. Ayeka successfully predicted the move and grabbed the   
leg and pulled Gary right up against her, his gut slamming into her waiting fist. Gary   
gagged then fell to the floor as the wind was punched out of him. Ayeka looked down, a   
small smile forming on her face as she backed off.  
  
Gary got up, took a deep breath and went right back in aiming a punch right at her throat.   
Ayeka again blocked by grabbing onto his arm, his fist only inches away from her   
delicate throat. She smiled again. Gary had a bigger smile as he extended his fingers,   
cutting into her throat and forcing the windpipe shut for a moment. Gary had the window   
of a second to sweep Ayeka's feet from under her. Grabbing her, he swung round and   
slammed her into the ground behind him.  
  
Ayeka looked up into the sky for a moment, eyes wide with the sharp sudden sensation of   
pain. Gary smiled softly as he turned to walk back to his starting position. He hadn't got   
about a meter when he heard a rush of wind and knew that he had exactly half a second to   
call up shield to stop Ayeka shattering his back.   
  
Ayeka slammed into his back in her trademark shield assisted body spear, driving Gary   
right to the end of the clearing and right through a palm tree. Gary gasped through   
concussion as Ayeka sat on him ready to rain down blows onto his head. Grabbing her   
shoulders he pulled her off him. Gary got up to see Ayeka leap at him again foot   
outstretched for a flying kick. The kick hit him squarely on the jaw, sending him   
sprawling to the ground several meters away. Ayeka placed a foot on his neck and smiled   
"Second round?" she said, out of breath.  
  
Gary nodded and got up, returning to their original positions.  
  
Gary and Ayeka split and backed off for the second round. Gary taking the time to   
recover from the concussion suffered from the body spear. Ayeka just watched intently.   
They were on each side of the clearing again, bits of wood from the tree broken in the last   
round littered the sandy area.  
  
Then as Gary clicked his neck the second round began. Ayeka pressing her advantage in   
speed moved right in, sweeping round in a lazy right arc to get in close. Gary stood right   
where he was as she zoomed right in. The yellow tint showing from her force field as she   
sped towards him.   
  
Gary closed his eyes as he put his right arm up and the two collided. Their shield's   
smacking together with colossal force, knocking them both away several meters.   
  
Ayeka was the first to get up but saw that Gary had gone, looking around quickly to see   
where he could've gone; all she saw was the empty clearing. A rush of air behind her   
however dictated that something was afoot and sure enough as she turned round the sole   
of Gary's boot heading right for her chest greeted her.   
  
The impact sent her flying back to the ground as Gary landed on the ground, the   
dimension portal above him closing. He waited as she got back up, dusting herself off.   
She smiled at him with a kind of 'cheat' look on her face. Gary shrugged.  
  
Gary then went through another portal right in front of him. Ayeka thought quickly,   
looked to her left where the air was shimmering then jumped up over the shimmering   
circle now forming.  
  
Sure enough our came Gary with a heavy right hand. Hitting air. He looked around and   
got kicked hard in the back of the head as Ayeka jumped over him. Surprised among   
most things Gary fell on his face. Ayeka landed gracefully turned around and giggled   
quietly as she saw Gary, face buried in the sand.  
  
Gary got up and rubbed the back of his head, he smiled, as he turned round to face Ayeka   
again. They stared again for a couple of moments.   
  
Ayeka flew right at him streamlined into a body spear again, hoping the small distance   
between the two would give Gary little to time to do anything. Gary stood, knowing what   
Ayeka was thinking. Side stepping and in true matador form, he pushed her straight   
along. Ayeka realizing in horror that her velocity had increased so much that she couldn't   
stop herself from smashing into the dense forest threw up a force field. She bounced right   
off the trees, right back into the waiting arms of Gary who bent back, smashing her right   
into the ground behind him.  
  
Gary jumped back as Ayeka laid there in a crumpled heap. He put his hand out.  
  
"Call it a day Princess?"  
  
She took the hand then pulled herself up. Saying nothing.  
  
_____  
  
"Oh Tenchi" chimed Ryoko on the beach "I've got the ice-cubes!"  
"I really do hope you meant that for my drink" gulped Tenchi as he got up but got pushed   
back down onto the soft sand gently by Ryoko.  
"Maybe" smiled Ryoko innocently.   
"Well cut it out" Tenchi said with his arms crossed "we might be on a desert island but   
that doesn't mean you can do…. those…well you know things". He stopped as he felt   
Ryoko stroking his hair.   
"Have you been listening to me?" Tenchi grumbled.  
"Oh" Ryoko clicked as she broke from her dirty daydream "of course I have!"  
"Well what did I say then?"   
"Erm well" Ryoko mumbled, "You said we were on a desert island" she thought for a   
second "I kinda lost it after that"   
Tenchi sunk his head down in exhaustion "I give up".  
"You do?" Ryoko grinned she jumped on Tenchi.  
"Hey!" Tenchi gasped "I didn't mean it in that way!"  
  
"Are you sure these instant food packets will work Washu?" Sassami asked, as she   
looked the foil packets with suspicion. Ryo-Ohki confused at the packet entitled 'instant   
carrot'.  
"Of course they will work" said Washu as she emptied some water into a wide pan "look   
pour the carrot powder into the water and loads of fresh carrots will constitute together.   
Ryo-Ohki's eyes lit up as she ripped the pack open and poured it into the pan. Sadly the   
power just squiggled together in a kind of gray colored sludge.  
  
"Or just do the total opposite to what I just said" Washu sighted "oh well back to the   
drawing board" Washu sighed as she brought up a holographic keypad and went back to   
sorting out the way of getting back home.  
  
_____  
  
"Did you enjoy your exercise?" asked Gary as he sat down on a log, Ayeka joining him.  
"It was interesting yes" nodded Ayeka as she massaged her back.  
"Did I go a little too hard?" Gary smiled.  
"Just as hard as I went on your head" giggled Ayeka as she wiped away some blood from   
a small cut to Gary's face.  
  
Gary laughed softly at this as he looked out to sea.  
"You're very quiet," said Ayeka as she stretched.  
"I've got some news," he said looking ahead.  
"What news?" Ayeka asked.  
"I.." he stopped for a second "I wanted to marry you"  
Ayeka nodded, surprised "Father will never let us you understand that"  
"I know, I've seen the future" Gary nodded.  
"I'm sorry Gary," said Ayeka sadly.  
"You love me though" Gary turned to face Ayeka.  
"Yes, yes I do" nodded Ayeka.  
"That's all I need to know" smiled Gary softly as he hugged her. He stood after they   
embraced.  
"Give Sassami, Mihoshi and Ryo-Ohki my love, Tenchi thanks for letting me stay and   
Ryoko all my Sake"  
"What where are you going?" Ayeka asked worried as she stood.  
Gary put his hands on her shoulders "Ayeka I'm sorry" he said looking down at the floor   
"I'm leaving" he said as he brushed away a tear from Ayeka.  
"But why, why so sudden?" Ayeka said through the tears.  
"Its my job Ayeka. This RPO posting was a temporary job, to secure Galactic peace"   
Gary said softly "I love you Ayeka and I will never forget you".  
"But you can't leave!" cried Ayeka, feeling herself being tripped again at the finishing   
line of happiness.  
"I'm sorry Ayeka" Gary said holding Ayeka in his shoulders, muffling her sobs "please   
forgive me" he said as he brought her face up, her tear streaked face.  
  
They kissed slowly, making it last for what seemed eternity. Gary broke the kiss and   
stepped back.   
  
"Gary please!" Ayeka sniffed, tears forming again "will I see you again?"  
"I don't know" Gary said as he called up a portal "Ayeka forgive me" he said, a single   
tear floating down his cheek as the portal enveloped him "forgive me".  
  
And he was gone.  
  
Ayeka couldn't quite believe it; she fell to her knees and cried uncontrollably.  
  
_____  
McCann sat in an empty room; a small, thick Edwardian conference table sat in the   
middle with green leather chairs placed all around. He twiddled his thumbs as a servant   
walked in with a Jug of water and two glasses.  
  
He looked at another old, thick report. As the servant left. Switching in between pages. A   
knock came at the double doors right at the end. McCann stood as one of the servants   
came in and announced:  
  
"Lady Funaho sir"  
  
He bowed respectfully as the lady herself walked into the room. She nodded in reply as   
she took a seat on the other side.  
"Ma'am" McCann said as he sat down "I assume you've been informed about the present   
situation?"   
"I have Commander" Funaho nodded as took a glass of water offered to her "I am not at   
all pleased"  
"Ma'am all respect due but I've lost my best Watcher because of what happened"  
"I understand that and I'm sorry but King Azusa could not allow such a thing to take   
place" she said sternly "we would have civil war on our hands if another person outside   
of the bloodline of Jurai was let in"  
"And that's why you came, to inform Gary yourself?"   
"We were going to take him with us" Funaho said as she sipped her water "he would've   
made a fine RPO"  
"You know we couldn't allow that" McCann smiled "he's too valuable to us"   
"What's the matter?" Funaho asked sarcastically "your council scared it'll lose what   
power it has in the galaxy?"  
"Something along those lines yes" nodded McCann "until we can get him back, he's a   
walking time bomb no matter where he goes"  
"What about the other dimensions? The other Tsunami's?" Funaho questioned.  
"We're dealing with that but we'd rather deal with it privately"  
"It must be serious seeing as you lost 5 Watchmen alone" Funaho said looking over   
another file.   
"We're dealing with it" McCann said with a stare "the Kagato infestation problem is   
being investigated and dealt with" he said coldly.  
"I hope so," said Funaho as she closed the File titled "Watchman no. 53" over it printed   
in big red words was 'Rouge'.  
  
______  
  
Ayeka stepped off the Imperial platform. She was covered in a deep, dark black kimono,   
her face covered in a shroud. She walked slowly through the streets, flanked by Azaka   
and Kamidaki, her people watching her.  
  
She had returned to visit her mother and father. It had been two years since Gary had left   
abruptly and she hadn't stopped mourning since. Her sadness had prompted her to visit   
home again, find a new direction and sort her life out before she would become one of the   
most powerful women in the universe.  
  
Suddenly a man with a wooden crutch burst through the Royal cordon.  
"Princess!" the man shouted, his face hidden by a hood attached to his rags "I am a   
veteran of wars fought in service of his Highness King Azuza" He was tackled by a   
couple of Royal bodyguard as Ayeka looked up, interested.  
  
"Guards please" she said quietly "let him come to me".  
  
The Guards relented and the man staggered back to his feet and hobbled his way to   
Ayeka, half of his left leg was missing. He presented a package to the Princess.  
"Please accept this from a poor loyal citizen of Jurai" he said weakly.  
She paused as she looked at the man. She took the package.  
"Your loyalty is appreciated soldier, please go with my blessing" she smiled softly as she   
placed her hand on his head.  
"Thank you Princess oh thank you!" said the man as he bowed and hobbled back into the   
crowd.  
  
When she entered the Palace gates she opened the package.  
  
She was amazed to find two books. One titled "Jane Eyre" the other titled "Great   
Expectations" Attached to the two books was a small note. It read:  
  
"These books are for you and Sassami, thank you.   
Signed your loyal servant  
G"  
  
She gasped as she ran back to the gate, looking through at the crowd, searching   
desperately for the person who she had prayed would come back after two years.  
  
The man hobbled through the street. In a blink of an eye his left leg reappeared, he   
started to walk properly and he removed the hood from his head.   
  
He looked back at Ayeka who was looking around from the gate; she went out of view as   
he ducked into an alleyway.  
  
"Be patient Princess," he said quietly as he walked though a portal.  
  
  
  
Fin  
  
Phew! Finished, it took time but I've done it, part six has been completed. Thanks   
for anyone who has read the series as I've wrote it. Question is now though 'will'   
Gary come back in the next series or will I do a totally new one? Oh well its   
brainstorming time. Anyway any rants, raves or 'I read it and all I got was this   
lousy t-shirt' comments to go to puddah@ntlworld.com  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



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